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MAJOR H.M. ALEXANDER, D. SO, 




Class3 &40 
Book . A g 



ON TWO FRONTS 



ON TWO FRONTS 

BEING THE ADVENTURES OF AN INDIAN 
MULE CORPS IN FRANCE AND GALLIPOLI 



BY 

Major H. M. ALEXANDER, D.S.O. 

S. & T. CORPS, INDIAN ARMY 



WITH MAP AND FRONTISPIECE 



NEW YORK 
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 

1917 



\ 



BeDicatfon 



TO 
D. M. R. 

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF 

INVALUABLE HELP 

IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS BOOK 



>i/ & 






Printcdin Great Britain 



FOREWORD 

This book has been written during a long 
period of enforced idleness. It makes no claim 
either to literary or historical merit, but is a plain 
tale of personal experiences in the War. Having 
been written almost entirely from memory, assisted 
only by the briefest of diaries, I fear that it must 
inevitably contain some inaccuracies for which I 
ask indulgence. 

To those officers and men whose names appear, 
I apologise for the liberty I have taken, and 
sincerely trust that I have said nothing that may 
cause annoyance. 



CONTENTS 



II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 
XI 

XII 
XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 
XXI 



OFF TO THE WAR 

A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 

A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 

HALF-WAY HOUSE 

IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 

THE INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 

ATTACHED TO THE ARMY SERVICE CORPS 

THE SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS THE DIVISION 

" NOTHING TO REPORT ON THE WESTERN 

FRONT" . 
THE BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELIE 
THE SCENE CHANGES 
EASTWARD BOUND 

MUDROS BAY .... 
THE FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 
EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 
AN ATTACK, AN ARMISTICE AND SUBMARINES 
" THE DAILY ROUND, THE COMMON TASK " 
PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 
THE SUVLA LANDING . . 

A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 
CONCLUSION ..... 



PAGE 
I 

*3 

27 

39 

52 
65 
79 
93 

106 

115 
119 
132 

139 

149 

165 
182 
194 
210 
225 
234 
245 



ON TWO FRONTS 



CHAPTER I 

OFF TO THE WAR 

Amballa in July is very hot and very dull. 
Any event however trifling which serves to break 
the monotony is therefore welcome to the weary, 
sleepy little coterie which gathers nightly at the 
Sirhind Club. July 19 14 was no exception to the 
rule, so that, when the thunder-cloud of European 
war burst upon us, every one woke with a- start 
and began to sit up and take notice. 

On August 5 came a Reuter's telegram an- 
nouncing that England had declared war on Ger- 
many. Bridge and billiards were superseded by 
discussions, first as to how long the war would 
last, and secondly how it would affect us in India. 
The general opinion was that three months would 
see it finished, and that the Indian Army, mobil- 
ised, would sit tight in India, ready to cope with 
any disturbances there. Very few even imagined 



2 ON TWO FRONTS 

that Indian troops would be sent to serve in 
Europe. 

But soon we heard that the Lahore and Meerut 
Divisions were to be mobilised for service abroad. 
Excitement grew. Officers began to overhaul 
their kits, and, figuratively speaking, to sharpen 
their swords. Fresh rumours cropped up every 
day. The 8 th Hussars were under orders to 
leave at once for France. The origin of this 
turned out to be that the provident 8 th had sent 
their mess silver to the bank! There had been 
no orders at all, but they wished to be ready. Then 
we heard that all officers and men throughout India 
had been recalled from leave, and that officers in 
England had been ordered to return. This proved 
correct. One of the most sleepy and fed-up of 
our little circle had sailed for home only a week 
or two earlier. He had gone to get married, and 
one pictured him arriving at Southampton to be 
greeted with the news that he must return at once. 
Some of the gunners had just gone off on a shoot- 
ing-trip in the hills, the preparations for which had 
formed one of the chief topics of conversation for 
the last month : they, too, had to come back imme- 
diately. But the feeling of each individual was 
that, so long as he got to France, nothing mat- 
tered. B Battery, R.H.A., belonged to the " In- 
ternal Defence Scheme", and I remember their 
Major, whose command of language was great and 



OFF TO THE WAR 3 

whose medals were few, enlarging on his mis- 
fortune very forcibly; but he found his way to 
Cape Helles eventually and greatly distinguished 
himself there. 

I commanded at that time the 9th Pack Mule 
Corps, which was employed in Amballa and in 
sending convoys to the various stations in the 
Simla Hills. For the benefit of the uninitiated, I 
will describe briefly the organisation and uses of 
a Mule Corps, a unit peculiar to the Indian Army. 

The Corps, at service strength, consists of eight 
troops of 96 mules each, in charge of a hot 
duffadar or troop-sergeant-major, assisted by two 
naicks or corporals, and about fifty Indian drivers. 
The " superior establishment ", as it is officially 
called, includes the Commandant (usually a Major 
or Captain), two British warrant-officers, each of 
whom commands a " sub-division " of four troops; 
two British staff-sergeants as Sergeant-Major and 
Quartermaster-Sergeant; two Indian officers as 
Adjutant and Veterinary Officer, and two Indian 
clerks. In peace-time . the Corps has 200 small 
carts, and four of the troops are then used in 
draught. The total strength is 768 mules and, 
roughly, 500 men. 

The mules are recruited from the Argentine, 
China and the Punjab. Some are bred in India 
at remount-depots from country-bred pony mares 
and imported English donkeys. The average 



4 ON TWO FRONTS 

height is about 12.2; anything over thirteen hands 
is a big mule. When carrying a pack (160 lbs.) a 
mule can go over any ground where a man can go. 

An Army Transport cart is a two- wheeled 
vehicle, weighing only 5 cwt. It will stand any 
amount of rough usage and knocking about, and 
will carry a load of 800 lbs. on an ordinary road. 
With a lighter load, it can be used on the roughest 
of tracks. 

These Mule Corps, which are units of the Indian 
Supply and Transport Corps, are intended to pro- 
vide the first-line transport for battalions of 
infantry, regiments of cavalry, and sapper com- 
panies. Water, ammunition, entrenching tools, 
signalling and medical equipment are carried on 
the mules, which accompany the troops wherever 
they may be sent. Mules, in fact, perform the 
same duties as are carried out by the regimental 
pack-horses under the British Army system. 

No doubt when the war is over the Indian Army 
transport system will be revised. The material is 
excellent, and in some campaigns no other form of 
transport would be of any use; but in my humble 
opinion the organisation is wrong, and does not 
adapt itself easily to the various circumstances 
which may arise. The personal factor — which is 
so essential in all dealings with Indian troops — 
cannot be maintained with the present organisation. 
For the most part, men enlist in a unit because 



OFF TO THE WAR 5 

their friends have already joined it, but on service 
these men get separated from each other and from 
the officers and N.C.O.s whom they know. A 
transport unit has every bit as much esprit de corps 
as a regiment, and once it becomes a mixed unit, 
composed of men of various corps under strange 
officers, its work deteriorates. Then, again, one 
British officer is insufficient : this was proved over 
and over again during the war, and was fully 
recognised by the authorities in Gallipoli. 

On August 9 came orders for the mobilisation 
of the 9 th Mule Corps, and an inquiry whether it 
could entrain for Bombay and Karachi on the 
1 2th. This could scarcely have been done had 
we not started to mobilise the very day war broke 
out on the chance of receiving some such order. 
Full steam ahead was the programme, and right 
well did all ranks play up. There were many 
hitches and complications, for the whole Corps hap- 
pened to be away from Amballa at the moment. 
Orderlies had to be despatched to recall two troops 
from Kalka : they arrived two days later, having 
marched eighty-two miles in about sixty-eight 
hours — not a bad performance in the month of 
August, with the thermometer at somewhere about 
no°. My orders recalling detachments from 
Simla and Dagshai were cancelled by superior 
authority, on the ground that they could not be 
spared from their present duties. This was rather 



6 ON TWO FRONTS 

a poser, but it was circumvented by marching the 
38 th Mule Cadre into the 9th Mule Corps lines, 
and taking their men and animals instead. Their 
CO., Captain Jack Rendall, of tennis fame, an 
old school friend of mine, placed all his resources 
absolutely at my disposal : without his aid we 
could not possibly have got away to time. 

Other complications arose from telegrams de- 
scending upon us from various sources. As 
Brigade Headquarters were at Kasauli, Divisional 
Headquarters at Dalhousie, and Army Head- 
quarters at Simla, perhaps it was natural that diffi- 
culties should arise, especially as this was the first 
unit in India to be despatched to the war. 

The fact that it was the leave season added to 
our troubles : telegrams take time to reach remote 
Indian villages, and in many cases do not arrive 
at all, and it was impossible to get back more than 
a small percentage of the absentees. Then the 
amount of office work to be done can only be 
realised by those who know what Indian official- 
dom means. A less complacent and imperturbable 
person than Clerk Mangat Rai would have lost his 
head; but nothing upsets him. He worked all 
day and all night, and never made a mistake or 
overlooked a point. Throughout the campaign 
he has been the same — always calm and cheerful, 
never complaining, and always ready to do any- 
thing in his power to help. 



OFF TO THE WAR 7 

The last straw, however — and what, no doubt, 
to any one but a transport officer would seem a 
very small straw indeed — came in the shape of an 
order to take with us our 200 Army Transport 
carts, of which 112 were to go to Bombay, and 
88 to Karachi. This meant overhauling all the 
draught gear, as we had been mobilising as a 
Pack Corps. The allotments of troops to trains 
for Bombay and Karachi respectively had either to 
be changed, or the draught gear redistributed. I 
chose the latter course as the lesser evil, and 
somewhere about midnight on August 1 1 it was 
finished. Then there was the taking to pieces of 
the carts, getting them to the station and loading 
them into the trucks — an exercise we had never 
practised in the 9th Mule Corps, as carts were 
considered for use in peace-time only. It was 
about two miles from the lines to the station. The 
method we adopted was to tow three dismantled 
carts behind one complete one. 

The men were delighted with the idea of going 
on service, and worked with the greatest enthu- 
siasm. In Conductors Brown and Green, and 
Staff-Sergeants Levings and Staton, I had four of 
the best British subordinates any commanding 
officer could desire. 1 The adjutant, Ressaidar 

1 The title " Conductor " is for official use only in the 
S. & T. Corps. Warrant Officers of this rank are always 
addressed as " Mr." 



8 ON TWO FRONTS 

Ghulam Mahomed — who had previously distin- 
guished himself on a frontier expedition by tack- 
ling, single-handed and unarmed, a couple of 
Afridi ruffians who were attacking his officer — 
was also of the greatest assistance. He was of an 
optimistic nature. The question arose as to 
whether we should take our swords, and I de- 
cided that we should not; whereupon the Ressaidar 
inquired, " But, Sahib, if we leave our swords 
behind, what shall we do when we march in pro- 
cession through London to celebrate our victories 
in the war? " 

On the night of August 12 the 9th Mule Corps 
left Amballa by three troop-trains, two for Bombay 
and one for Karachi. Loading the mules worked 
fairly smoothly, but getting the carts aboard was 
most strenuous work. Fortunately we never had 
to do this work again, for in France the carts were 
placed on the trucks whole, and were therefore 
ready for use as they came off. This means eight 
to a truck instead of twenty-two, but saves a great 
deal of time and wear and tear of carts. 

All the time loading was going on, Conductor 
Green, seated at a table on the platform, with 
Mangat Rai by his side, was paying out the men, 
giving them advances and arranging for family 
allotments, there having been no time to do this 
before. It could not even be finished before the 
trains left, and was continued during the journey. 



OFF TO THE WAR 9 

Three days of travelling followed : it was hot, 
but peaceful, and most of the time was spent in 
making up for lost sleep. 

On arrival at Bombay, the orders were to camp 
at Cotton Green, close to the Taj Mahal Hotel. 
The management of this hotel had very sportingly 
offered to put up officers proceeding on service 
free of charge, so I gladly availed myself of this 
privilege and spent a week in Bombay in great 
comfort. Not so my poor men, who were washed 
out of their tents the very first night by one of 
the heaviest downpours of rain Bombay had seen 
for years — four inches during the night of our 
arrival reducing the camp to an absolute quagmire. 
Thus early did the men come in contact with the 
discomforts of active service : it was good training 
for Flanders. 

As each regiment arrived in Bombay, it went 
straight on board its appointed troopship, accom- 
panied by the transport allotted to it, so most of 
our time was spent at the docks getting the mules 
on board. If by any chance the first mule took 
exception to the gangway, the probability was that 
all the rest did the same. Sometimes we had 
almost to carry them on board. With a rope under 
the animal's tail, and escape barred by a crowd of 
men, we used to haul and heave. There was one 
animal which had evidently made up its mind that 
it would not take a sea-voyage, but after kicking 



io ON TWO FRONTS 

half a dozen men and scattering the crowd it 
yielded to the inevitable and stood upon the gang- 
way. There was not then room enough to kick, 
so some of the men hoisted the beast on their 
shoulders and bore it triumphantly up the gangway 
and into the hold : that mule literally smiled over 
the trouble he was giving. 

Embarkation ran smoothly on the whole. Major 
Cummins, D.A.Q.M.G., was an ideal Staff Officer, 
always knowing exactly what we wanted. He was 
never flurried, always polite and ready to help, as 
was also Major Preston, of the Supply and Trans- 
port Corps, who gave us the greatest assistance in 
completing our requirements. Captains Pemberton 
and Hogg, of the Royal Engineers, were employed 
with their company of Sappers in the heavy task of 
fitting up various commandeered steamers as trans- 
ports. It was galling for these officers to be work- 
ing so hard to get other people away to the war 
while they remained behind. But their turn came 
later on. Pemberton won a Military Cross in 
Mesopotamia, and I met Hogg in Egypt the 
following year. 

All my men thought Bombay wonderful, as 
practically none of them had ever before seen any 
building larger than an ordinary cantonment 
bungalow. Some of them had heard of the 
Towers of Silence, where the Parsees leave their 
dead to be devoured by crows and vultures, 



OFF TO THE WAR n 

and were anxious to see the gruesome spectacle; 
they were, however, not allowed inside the 
gates. 

There was naturally much speculation as to the 
destination of the large fleet of transports lying in 
the harbour. People talked of East Africa or 
Egypt, and were ready to back their opinions. 
France stood low in the betting, which reminds 
me that a certain Colonel of Gurkhas still owes 
me a sovereign : nothing, he said, would induce 
him to believe that an Indian Division was going 
to fight in France. We got very little news from 
the front, and had no idea how serious matters 
were : rather we wondered whether the war would 
not be over and our Expeditionary Force in Berlin 
before the Lahore Division could take any part in 
the righting. 

When transport had been allotted to each unit, 
and all the ships loaded, I received orders to take 
the unallotted balance on board the Anchor Line 
steamer Castalia. The loading of the ship was 
completed on August 21. A cheery dinner at the 
Royal Yacht Club that evening included the 
Austrian Consul, a particularly pleasant man, who 
was much upset at the idea of war between his 
country and England. England, he said, had 
always been the friend of Austria, and he had the 
greatest regard for Englishmen. 

On August 22 the Castalia, bearing the Field 



12 ON TWO FRONTS 

Engineers of the Lahore Division, the Head- 
quarters 9 th Mule Corps and details, set sail from 
Bombay. A crowd, consisting of two tired-looking 
dock-labourers and one fat boy, raised a faint 
cheer as the ship steamed out of Alexandra 
Docks. 



CHAPTER II 

A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 

When the good ship Cast alia sailed from 
Bombay, her destination was unknown to the 
officers and men on board. As she was more than 
half empty, it was no great surprise to learn that 
her first port of call was to be Karachi, where more 
troops were to be picked up. 

The voyage from Bombay to Karachi was far 
from pleasant, the weather being very hot and the 
sea fairly rough. The task of looking after the 
animals presented considerable difficulty, because 
most of the men were what they were pleased to 
call " purra ". The nearest colloquial translation 
to this would be " flattened out ". There were, 
however, sufficient men remaining serviceable to 
carry out the duties of feeding and watering, and 
not much else was attempted those first few days. 
The men were really bewildered, many of them 
never having even heard of the sea, and, to those 
who had, it did not seem to be at all what they 
expected. After a time, they settled down to 
voyage conditions and apparently quite enjoyed 
themselves, though there were some — notably the 
artificers who had practically no work to do — who 

13 



14 ON TWO FRONTS 

remained "purra" until the end of the journey- 
Fortunately, my two British sergeants were good 
sailors. They, with the senior kot duffadar, 
Bahawal Din, a very fine man who afterwards won 
the Distinguished Service Medal in France, and a 
few of the hardier of the rank and file, got through 
the necessary duties until we reached Karachi. 

As the Cast alia steamed into Karachi harbour, 
she met a fleet of transports sailing out, escorted 
by H.M.S. Northbrook. In this fleet was the 
ship which carried the G.O.C. and Staff of the 
Lahore Division. General Watkis, the Divisional 
Commander, was at home on leave when war broke 
out, and the Division left India in charge of Major- 
General Brunker, of the Amballa Brigade, his 
brigade being handed over to Colonel W. G. 
Walker, V.C., of the 4th Gurkhas. 

We remained four days in Karachi. The O.C. 
ship, Lieut.-Colonel Coffin, R.E., obtained per- 
mission to put the animals ashore, and this enabled 
us to have all the stables thoroughly cleaned out, 
and allowed the mules to stretch their legs and get 
some fresh air, which did them a lot of good. 

I got into touch here with the balance of my 
corps, which had gone direct by train to Karachi 
from Amballa, under the two Warrant Officers, 
Brown and Green. They had had none too easy 
a time. An officious young veterinary officer had 
inspected the animals and announced that there 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 15 

were two mules suffering from mange. He re- 
commended that the whole detachment should be 
forbidden to embark. In vain did Mr. Brown 
protest that at a veterinary inspection, held at 
Amballa the day before departure, the Corps had 
bee,n declared free of any infectious disease, and 
that the so-called " mange " was really a mild form 
of barsati. Had it not been for the good offices 
of Captain A. J. Rennison, Commandant of the 
2nd Mule Corps, which was the other transport 
unit detailed to accompany the Lahore Division, 
the probability is that the detachment would have 
been isolated and left behind. Captain Rennison 
succeeded in getting leave for a second inspection 
to be held by a more experienced veterinary officer, 
with the result that all animals were passed fit, and 
the embarkation was continued. This detachment 
of the 9th Mule Corps was distributed to various 
units and embarked on various ships, as had been 
done with the Bombay detachment. There is 
much to be said for this method, but I prefer the 
system adopted when we went from France to 
Gallipoli. Then the Mule Corps travelled as a 
unit, and was distributed at the other end. It is 
certainly easier and more economical to fit up, say, 
two ships as mule-transports, than to provide a 
small quantity of stabling in each of some thirty 
ships. On the other hand, if one of the mule- 
ships were torpedoed, or otherwise came to grief, 



1 6 ON TWO FRONTS 

the catastrophe from a transport point of view 
would be greater. On the whole, regiments 
looked after their animals on board ship wonder- 
fully well. Each regimental transport officer was 
given a list of instructions, showing the routine 
to be carried out on board, and most of them 
adhered to it to the letter and landed their animals 
at Marseilles in fine condition. Still, it would 
naturally be more satisfactory to the O.C. of a 
transport unit, who is held responsible, if all the 
animals travelled under his immediate care or that 
of subordinates selected by him. 

The 32nd Divisional Signal Company and five 
Field Ambulances embarked in the Cast alia, filling 
up all available space to an uncomfortable degree, 
and on August 29 she moved off from Karachi 
and soon afterwards caught up some twelve more 
transports, escorted by H.M.S. Chatham. From 
now onwards the sea kept quiet calm, and the 
invalids began to realise that the terrors of a voyage 
were not as great as they had imagined. Every 
one settled dawn to a regular routine of work and 
play. Every day, at noon, Colonel Coffin — accom- 
panied by the Adjutant (Lieutenant Walshe of the 
Connaught Rangers), the Quartermaster (my 
friend Jack Rendall, who had been appointed 
Supply Officer, Sirhind Brigade), and one of the 
ship's officers — made a complete tour of the ship. 
In the afternoons we used to exercise the animals. 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 17 

A little work by the Corps' carpenters made this 
feasible : by the removal of a few posts, a course 
was left clear, and, with matting laid down, it was 
quite simple to walk all the animals round and 
round their holds. This without doubt helped 
greatly to keep them in good condition. The 
mules gave far less trouble than the horses, some 
of which were very obstreperous at first both at 
exercise and in their stalls, for they used to get 
frightened and start kicking. The mule is a 
cleverer animal than the horse, and adapts himself 
more readily to new conditions. Sergeant Levings 
and Jemadar Wali Mahomed, the veterinary officer 
of the 9th Mule Corps, put in some very useful 
work in saving the lives of several horses. 

Every day we had lectures on the upper deck 
on every kind of technical subject. Colonel Coffin 
started a French class, which was very popular. 
We did not know yet that we were bound for 
France, but nothing was left to chance, and by 
now it was the general impression that Marseilles 
was our destination. For recreation we had con- 
certs, bridge and chess. Inoculations for cholera, 
enteric and other diseases took place daily, and 
would probably be included by the large number 
of medical officers on board under the head of 
recreation, though some of us thought otherwise. 

One of the most interesting personalities on 
board was the ship's doctor — a very big Irishman 



1 8 ON TWO FRONTS 

of most genial disposition. He had been an Inter- 
national footballer, and must have, been a most 
objectionable person to bump up against in a 
" scrum", for his weight could not have been 
much less than twenty stone. He was a great 
bridge player and was also very fond of a practical 
joke. One day he and Lieutenant Walsh, I.M.S. 
(who was unfortunately killed in France), were 
playing against Rendall and myself, when the 
doctor was called away to see a patient. He and 
Walsh had been holding the most amazing cards, 
so I took the opportunity of playing a practical 
joke on the doctor. It was his deal, and, quickly 
re-sorting the cards, I arranged the pack so that 
he would deal himself ten diamonds to the ace and 
the other three aces. Jack, on his left, was to get 
all the hearts bar the ace. The distribution of the 
rest of the cards was immaterial. The doctor was 
only away about two minutes, and when he came 
back we said, " Come along, doctor, deal away. 
The cards are cut." When the doctor saw his 
hand he gave a gasp, then burst into a series of 
guffaws and smacked his knees with joy. Finally 
he said, "I'll go five no trumps." " Nonsense," 
we said, " this is bridge, not tomfoolery." " Five 
no trumps," repeated the doctor emphatically. 
"All right," said Rendall. " I'll go six hearts." 
"Not enough," screamed Walsh; "you've got to 
go seven to beat five no trumps, and I'll double." 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 19 

The doctor scratched his head, laughed some more, 
and announced that he would go seven no trumps. 
Jack doubled; the doctor redoubled. He solemnly 
played out every trick of the whole thirteen, and 
it took the rest of the voyage to make him believe 
that it was a leg-pull. 

The Indian ranks of the Field Ambulance were 
christened " The Lahore Militia". They looked 
like anything on earth rather than soldiers. Not 
even their own officers believed for a moment that 
they would survive the rigours of a winter in 
Europe, or that they would stand up to German 
shell-fire; yet they did both right manfully. It 
was hard to realise, when we saw them afterwards 
in France, that these smart, well-set-up stretcher- 
bearers were the same ill-conditioned scallywags 
at whose antics (politely called " physical drill") 
we all used to laugh consumedly on board the 
Castalia. More than one was decorated for valour, 
and as a corps they behaved with exemplary discip- 
line and courage, reflecting the greatest possible 
credit on the medical officers who had taken so 
much trouble to convert what appeared most 
indifferent material into really useful soldiers. 

When the Castalia reached Aden she anchored 
well out in the harbour. A message, informing 
us definitely that the Lahore Division was going 
to Marseilles, was received with loud cheers. We 
had only a few hours at Aden, but, as we were 



20 ON TWO FRONTS 

anxious to get our Indian letters posted, the 
skipper lent us a boat to pull across to the P. & O. 
liner which had just arrived en route for Bombay. 
A volunteer crew of officers was called for. Of 
course every one wanted to go; but there was 
only room for eight, in addition to the second 
officer, Mr. Kelly, who was in charge. I was 
lucky enough to get one of the places; we were 
lowered over the ship's side, and set off. It was 
soon apparent that we should never reach the 
liner, so we altered our course and made for 
H.M.S. Chatham^ which was lying much nearer 
the Castalia. 

The officers of the Chatham invited us on board 
and into their wardroom, where the surgeon, Hugh 
Norris, 1 an old friend, gave me several pounds of 
excellent tobacco which lasted until I could obtain 
a regular supply from home. The wardroom of 
the Chatham was, without exception, the hottest 
place I have ever been in, but it made up in hos- 
pitality and general cheeriness for what it lacked 
in ventilation. We heard all about the escape of 
the Goeben and Breslau, both of which the junior 
officers of the Chatham told us they could have 
sunk " absolutely sitting " had they been allowed 
to open fire. We spent a very enjoyable couple 
of hours on board, and, when we left, the only 

1 Fleet-Surgeon Norris was unfortunately lost when the 
Indefatigable went down in the Battle of Jutland. 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 21 

man of our crew who cared two straws whether 
it snowed ink was Mr. Kelly, who was responsible 
to the skipper for the safe return of the boat. The 
next time I saw the Chatham was in August 19 15, 
when she took part in covering the landing of 
troops at Suvla Bay, but on that occasion I was not 
able to get aboard into the sanctuary of her ward- 
room, though I would have given much to be able 
to do so. The return journey to the Cast alia was 
quite hilarious, but was safely accomplished. 
Kelly's sigh of relief, as the boat was hoisted into 
the davits, must have been heard at Bombay. 

In the Red Sea tragedy overtook the Cast alia: 
the skipper, Captain Mitchell, who had been out 
of sorts for two or three days, was found dead in 
his bunk. He had served the Anchor Line loyally 
for over forty years, and this was to have been his 
last voyage. He was buried at sea next morning, 
the whole fleet halting while the funeral took place, 
conducted by the Chaplain, Captain Knott. I had 
sat next Captain Mitchell at meals and had been 
much struck by his courtesy and kindness. There 
was no doubt that he felt the responsibility of com- 
manding — for the first time in his long career — 
a troopship, and his death was attributed to heart- 
failure, brought on by anxiety. 

We had been ordered to look out for mines, and 
the fleet had not pursued its usual course up the 
Red Sea, but we arrived safely at Suez, where a 



22 ON TWO FRONTS 

surprise awaited us in the shape of orders to dis- 
embark the 32nd Signal Company, complete with 
horses and transport, and with some details — all 
to go to Cairo. The ship was then to proceed to 
Alexandria, where the remainder of the troops were 
to disembark and encamp. This was a great dis- 
appointment, for of course our chief desire was to 
get on as rapidly as possible to the front. We 
heard that the Sirhind Brigade had already been 
landed and that some of its regiments were posted 
along the Canal — doubtless as a precaution against 
war with Turkey and internal troubles in Egypt. 

At Suez I was taken to the pretty little Anglo- 
French club on the bank of the Canal, where the 
latest English and French papers and Reuter's tele- 
grams were available. Having only received a few 
vague and unsatisfying wireless messages during 
the voyage, one was glad to get into touch with 
events again. After the gallant but disastrous retreat 
of the French Army and the British Expeditionary 
Force, a stand had been made upon the Marne, 
and at the time of our arrival at Suez the Allies' 
armies were advancing in pursuit of the Germans. 
There were long casualty lists in the English 
papers, telling the tale of the retreat from Mons. 

The passage through the Suez Canal was very 
interesting to the Indians, and Clerk Mangat Rai 
was heard to remark that he wished it was all like 
this. The " purra " ceased from being " purra ", 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 23 

and were keenly interested in their surroundings. 
There were even then trenches along the Canal 
bank, and outposts of Gurkhas were to be seen 
at intervals; but, apart from these, little sign of 
life was evident, which moved my servant, Rahin 
Baksh, to remark that he had been taught at school 
that Egypt was an inhabited country and he would 
be glad to know where the inhabitants were. 

At Alexandria we learned that the ship would 
be berthed next morning, and all animals landed 
and camped at the docks. It was expected that 
we should remain for about three weeks, until such 
time as a Territorial Division, now on its way from 
England, should arrive in Egypt; and in the mean- 
time the Lahore Division was to do garrison duty. 

Only one gangway was procurable, so, in order 
to expedite the landing of the animals, we decided 
to use the slings for the mules and the gangway 
for the horses. It is surprising how simple a 
matter is the slinging of animals. At first we 
slung them singly, but afterwards two together, 
which really proved better, because the animal did 
not seem to mind so much having the sling 
adjusted if another victim was standing by his 
side. The spectacle of two helpless mules dang- 
ling side by side in mid-air, looking around them 
in blank bewilderment, is quite amusing. As they 
landed on the wharf, they were led straight to the 
selected camp close by and picketed in lines. A 



24 ON TWO FRONTS 

guard was posted to keep an eye on the camp, but 
most of the men remained on board. 

In order to give the men a sight of the town, 
a route-march was arranged the day after our 
arrival. Headed by Sergeant Levings, on his 
spirited chestnut mare, the Headquarters of the 
9th Mule Corps marched through the streets of 
Alexandria as far as the parade and sea-wall. They 
enjoyed the walk, and were much interested in the 
shops and streets which are quite different from 
those of India. The local people, for their part, 
seemed interested in the Indians, and at times 
cheered them and gave them presents of cigarettes. 

The committee and members of the Union Club 
had very kindly made honorary members of all 
officers passing through Alexandria. Most of us 
from the Castalia went there for dinner, and very 
nice it was to sit on the roof of this most comfort- 
able club and enjoy a really excellent meal again. 
The food on the Castalia was never good, and 
became daily worse till, at the end of the voyage, 
even a change to army rations was welcome. At 
the Union Club I met many old friends, mostly 
on their way to France. The Club was, in fact, 
absolutely swamped by the honorary members. 
The permanent and residential members deserve 
the sincerest thanks for their hospitality, for the 
descent of an army upon them must have caused 
great inconvenience. 

We were not destined after all to remain long in 



A LONG TIME ON THE WAY 25 

Egypt. About the third day after our arrival we 
learned that the orders had been changed, that the 
Signal Company was arriving immediately from 
Cairo, and would re-embark, when the Castalia, 
with the rest of the fleet bearing the Lahore 
Division, would set sail for France. 

The Signal Company came aboard pretty well 
dead beat. Their stay in Egypt had been a period 
of perpetual motion. On arrival in Cairo, they 
had marched in the middle of the night to a camp, 
whence they had set forth the next morning to 
take part in a ceremonial parade and march through 
the city. When they got back to camp they found 
orders to pack up and entrain for Alexandria that 
night, so by the time we saw them again they had 
had about enough. Their CO., Major Maxwell, 
R.E., had been ill as a result of inoculation, and 
was unable to accompany them, so the brunt of the 
work fell upon Lieutenant Walshe, who was acting 
for him. My senior kot duffadar, Bahawal Din, 
had accompanied the Signal Company in charge 
of their transport. He told me that Cairo was a 
fine city, and that he and his men had enjoyed the 
ceremonial parade. 

Divisional Headquarters were on board a pas- 
senger-ship which was berthed just opposite the 
Castalia. The General and Staff and heads of 
departments were there, including my own chief, 
Lieut.-Colonel Hennessy, Assistant Director of 
Transport. 



26 ON TWO FRONTS 

The fleet which left Alexandria, carrying the 
whole of the Lahore Division (except the Sirhind 
Brigade, which was left to safeguard the Suez 
Canal), consisted of fifteen ships : as they passed 
out of the harbour one by one, and formed up in 
two parallel lines, they made a most impressive 
spectacle. This time the escort consisted of 
H.M.S. Weymouth and H.M.S. Indomitable, 
which sailed at the head of the fleet. Soon after- 
wards seven transports, carrying the ist Indian 
Cavalry Division, joined us, and the climax was 
reached when, on a brilliantly sunny day, this won- 
derful array of ships met the transports bearing the 
Territorial Division bound for Egypt, with 
H.M.S. Minerva as escort. A halt was called while 
the captain of the Minerva boarded the Wey- 
mouth. This spectacle of thirty-nine transports 
drawn up in so small an area, protected by only 
three men-o'-war, made one realise as nothing else 
could have done how much Great Britain owes to 
her navy, and how wonderful is her command of 
the sea. The sun was setting as the boat bearing 
the skipper of the Minerva was pulled back to his 
ship. The scene as the two great fleets moved off 
again — each to play the part assigned to it in the 
Great War — is one which must have impressed 
itself indelibly on the mind of every officer and 
man who was privileged to see it. 



CHAPTER III 

A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 

On September 26 the ships carrying the first 
of the Indian troops dropped anchor in Marseilles 
harbour. A couple of days previously the escort- 
ing man-o'-war had signalled that the convoy 
formation might be broken up, and each ship was 
to make her own way into port. Then ensued a 
sort of general post, the faster vessels gradually 
forcing their way to the front. The Castalia, 
which had hitherto been compelled to travel well 
within her powers, now showed what she could do 
and eventually arrived among the first two or three 
of the whole fleet. The Marseilles people had had 
no time to become blase before the Indian ranks of 
the 32nd Signal Company and the 9th Mule Corps 
made their appearance. Some sort of a greeting 
from our allies we had expected; but what actually 
happened almost defies description. 

The first inkling of what our reception was to 
be came from the ships we passed en route to the 
wharf. On every deck were gathered passengers 
and crew, waving handkerchiefs and hats in greet- 
ing. Then, as the transports passed alongside the 

27 



28 ON TWO FRONTS 

many wharves and quays, we could see large 
crowds collected at every advantageous point to 
cheer the Indian contingent and welcome it to 
France. I could not help contrasting this recep- 
tion with our send-off from Amballa and Bombay, 
where nobody appeared to take the slightest interest 
in our departure. But then the French nation is 
full of sentiment, and the British just the reverse. 

On arrival, officers commanding units were 
directed to proceed to the steamer which was at 
that time used as Headquarters Indian Base. I 
had to report to the Base Transport Officer, in 
whom I found an old friend, Major Lushington, 
who was for several years captain of the Supply 
and Transport Corps cricket team, and had in the 
season of 1908-9 led it to victory in the Punjab 
Cup competition. My orders were to disembark 
as quickly as possible, collect my personnel, mules, 
carts and material from the various ships, put the 
carts together at the wharves, and transport every- 
thing to the Lahore Division Camp at Pare Boreli, 
some four miles out of Marseilles. The scheme 
of transport which had been drawn up in India had 
been entirely altered, and a fresh distribution was 
to be made. 

Disembarkation continued all day and all night. 
The mules were picketed at the wharves, by 
running long ropes through rings fixed in the walls 
of the goods-sheds and attaching the head-ropes 



A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 29 

to these. As had been the case in India, the carts 
gave the greatest trouble. The Corps black- 
smiths were mostly elderly men, and had done 
nothing for five weeks except eat and sleep, so they 
found continuous work for hours on end rather 
trying. The French dock-labourers who worked 
the cranes went off for their evening meal some- 
where about 6 p.m. : they were supposed to stay 
away one hour, but never returned. Finally I had 
to go to the Chamber of Commerce and rout out 
a sleepy official who promised to send them back 
at once, and by dawn next morning the Castalia 
was cleared. 

Leaving my two warrant officers to collect the 
rest of the Corps, as the ships bearing the various 
detachments came into port, I formed up an 
advance party and marched off about 9 a.m. Even 
at that early hour the streets were alive with people. 
From docks to camp our little procession passed" 
through streets lined with the good folk of Mar- 
seilles, who clapped their hands, cheering vocifer- 
ously and shouting, " Vive l'Angleterre ", " Vivent 
les Hindous", and " Good-night ". This last, 
considering what o'clock it was, seemed odd; but 
we found later that " good-night " is the one 
English expression which every French man, 
woman and child seems to know. This reminds 
one of the British Tommy who wrote home that 
the French seem to know scarcely any English. 



30 ON TWO FRONTS 

" For the most part we 'ave to talk to them in their 
own lingo, but there is just one English word that 
every bloomin' one of them does seem to know, 
and that is souvenir." 

At some places we had almost to force our way- 
through the cheering crowds. Led by a couple 
of French boy-scouts, full of the importance of the 
occasion, the procession — with my Indian adjutant 
and myself mounted at its head — passed along for 
all the world like royalty on its way to the Abbey, 
or like the return of the C.I.V. The heart of 
Ressaidar Ghulam Mahomed rejoiced exceedingly; 
he is a fine-looking man, and acknowledged the 
salutes with a solemnity worthy of a great occasion. 

Truly the humble mule-driver entered into his 
own that day. In India he is accustomed to being 
rather looked down upon, but this was before the 
war. His most gallant behaviour on all occasions, 
under fire and hardship, ought to have changed 
all that. Here in Marseilles he received a greeting 
enthusiastic enough to have satisfied the House- 
hold Cavalry or the Brigade of Guards. The 
drivers fully appreciated it, and behaved admirably. 
It seems as though the treatment the men received 
at Marseilles influenced their conduct at the front 
by giving them an unwonted feeling of pride and 
self-confidence. In their own country, despite 
the hardships they endure and the risks they run, 
they are classed as "followers". Here — however 



A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 31 

they might be classed — they were treated as fight- 
ing men. The result could only tend to increased 
zeal and efficiency. 

The last part of our march lay through an avenue 
of trees, beautiful in their autumn tints, leading 
to the Pare Boreli and the race-course on which our 
camp was to be pitched. 

It was an ideal situation. The race-course lies 
close to the sea, parallel with the famous Corniche 
Road which runs along the coast from Marseilles 
to Monte Carlo. Between the race-course and the 
road are high iron railings. All the time the 
Division was in camp, crowds glued their noses to 
those railings, watching the Indians cooking their 
food and saying their prayers, for the Marseillais 
seemed to find endless amusement in studying the 
habits and customs of our men, who, for their part, 
were only too ready to meet them half-way. It 
was wonderful how quickly the French and the 
Indians learned to understand one another. Neither 
knew a single word of the other's language, but 
this seemed to make no difference, and in a very 
short time they became bosom friends. 

Divisional Headquarters were established in the 
offices at the Grand Stand, and there General 
Watkis, who had arrived in Marseilles from Eng- 
land some time before, took over command of his 
Division. 

By the next day the various contingents of the 



32 ON TWO FRONTS 

9th Mule Corps were in camp together. Sorting 
them out from the different ships was a most 
wearisome business. Captain Rennison had to 
collect the 2nd Mule Corps and take them to 
another camp, and it was not surprising that we got 
a bit mixed, and that certain men, animals and 
carts were temporarily unaccounted for. There 
appeared to be about 100 men short. It turned 
out that these had been left in Egypt with the 
Sirhind Brigade. As soon as all transport had 
found its way to camp, redistribution began on 
the new scale. 

Sixteen pack-mules and ten carts were allotted 
to each battalion of infantry, and a slightly larger 
allotment was made to each of the two Sapper 
Companies and the Signal Company — all from the 
9th Mule Corps. The 2nd Mule Corps was to 
find all the transport of the ammunition columns 
and of the Divisional Cavalry. The unallotted 
balance of the two Mule Corps was to be amal- 
gamated and called " Headquarters Mule Trans- 
port ", whose duties were to be the maintenance 
up to strength and in good condition of the trans- 
port issued to units; the replacement of all casual- 
ties in men and animals ; the care of gear and carts, 
and the veterinary care of the animals; also, of 
course, the upkeep of the Corps records and 
interior economy. Captain Rennison, who was 
senior to me, became O.C. Headquarters Mule 



A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 33 

Transport. It took us some little time to get the 
hang of this novel procedure, and at first our 
respective adjutants insisted on drawing a hard 
and fast line between the two Corps, for amalgama- 
tion was beyond them. As time went on, how- 
ever, the arrangement was better understood, and 
the 2nd and 9th Mule Corps pulled together as 
comrades in arms. 

Our stay in Marseilles was of short duration — 
only five days in all — and men and animals were 
daily being handed over to units and leaving the 
camp for the Advance Base. The weather was 
perfect, except for one day when we experienced 
a Marseilles " mistral ". This is a cross between 
a gale and a dust-storm, and is one of the most 
unpleasant experiences imaginable. All the tents 
were blown down; everything was covered in dust; 
our eyes and ears and hair were filled with dust 
and fine sand. Nothing we experienced in France 
seemed more utterly uncomfortable than this 
mistral; but fortunately it only lasted a day. 

A ceremonial march through Marseilles by the 
troops, British and Indian, of the Lahore Division, 
took place as soon as the whole Division had dis- 
embarked, which gave the townspeople a further 
opportunity of expressing their feelings. They 
took the fullest advantage of it, enormous crowds 
cheering themselves hoarse. 

We had a good deal of difficulty in getting about 



34 ON TWO FRONTS 

in Marseilles, where the distances are considerable. 
The trams were crowded, while cabs and cars were 
very scarce, so that walking was frequently the 
only means of reaching one's destination. Pave 
streets are unsuitable for riding. My little New 
Zealand horse " Mahdi " had landed in excellent 
condition, though somewhat on the fat side. I 
bought him in Amballa a few days before leaving, 
and he turned out a perfect treasure. He is a 
small, compact animal with plenty of bone, and is 
a wonderful doer, for all through that first winter 
he covered his ten to twenty miles a day, and was 
never sick nor sorry, thanks to the tender care 
bestowed on him by his sais Ajaib Shah. Mahdi, 
in fact, proved himself a perfect charger. Nothing 
frightened him or in any way disturbed his equa- 
nimity. I was riding down a lane one day at the 
front when a battery of French '75's let off a salvo 
just behind the hedge, within ten yards of us. I 
nearly jumped out of the saddle with surprise, 
but Mahdi went on as if nothing had happened. 
He was just as calm when shells were bursting 
near him. After leaving France, he survived 
eight months of Gallipoli, and then — safely evacu- 
ated — went off to Mesopotamia. I hope to 
retrieve him at the end of the war, and to keep 
him until he dies of old age. 

On October 2, having completed the redistribu- 
tion of transport, the undistributed balance left for 



A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 35 

the Advance Base. Nothing could possibly have 
been better than the French railway arrangements. 
A time-table for the journey showed places and 
times of halts, and where animals were to be 
watered, and the exactitude with which this time- 
table was observed was really miraculous. The 
train left Marseilles to the very minute, and for 
the whole three days of the journey the same punc- 
tuality was maintained. We had sometimes to 
water at most unsuitable hours, but that could 
not be helped. The mule is proverbially an 
obstinate beast, and he stolidly refused to drink 
at midnight. 

Orleans was our destination. On the first 
evening of the journey we reached Cette, a place 
on the coast west of Marseilles, and next morning 
found us at Toulouse. All along the line were 
cheering crowds. At every station where a halt 
was made the platforms were thronged with people, 
laden with presents of fruit, sweets, flowers and 
cigarettes, and several times we were given a formal 
reception by the mayor and other officials who 
made pretty speeches and wished us luck in the 
campaign. Rennison and I had been joined by 
Captain Stevenson, A.V.C., who was to take 
veterinary charge of our animals, and by two 
French interpreters, Corporal Paul Singer and 
Trooper Raymond Moillis, who played an import- 
ant part with the Mule Corps on the Western 



36 ON TWO FRONTS 

Front. Neither Rennison nor Stevenson could 
be persuaded to utter a word in French, and it fell 
to my lot to reply to the speeches and to express 
our thanks for the overwhelming attentions paid 
to us. My French is very bad, and my accent so 
horrible that it sets even my own teeth on edge. 
But French people are so polite that one is en- 
couraged to persevere. It is true that on one 
or two occasions I made faux pas, the enormity of 
which was subsequently pointed out by a horrified 
interpreter, but on the whole I managed to make 
myself understood, which, after all, is the main 
thing. 

Coming on top of what had occurred at Mar- 
seilles, this railway journey bid fair to turn the 
head of the Indian mule-driver. Beautiful ladies 
insisted on shaking him by the hand, and pressed 
upon him cigarettes and sweets, which he loves. 
" If this is campaigning in Europe," thought he, 
" I can stand a good deal of it." Never had our 
men had such a time; but it is only fair to say 
that, when the real stern business of war began, 
they took it in the finest spirit. 

At Toulouse, where we halted for a few hours, 
we saw a number of German prisoners at the 
barracks doing the goose-step — a fine, stalwart lot 
of men, who had been captured at the Marne; and 
many German field and machine-guns were also 
collected there, with other trophies of war. The 



A GREAT RECEPTION IN FRANCE 37 

waiting-rooms at most of the stations had been 
turned into Red Cross hospitals, where charming 
French nurses tended the wounded, pending their 
removal to more permanent hospitals. They 
always had tea or coffee ready for us. At one 
station a very excited English girl was amongst 
the crowd awaiting the train. She had been born 
in India, and was delighted at seeing Indian troops 
again. We collected many souvenirs en route, 
such as picture postcards, and some of the kind 
people gave us their cards and invited us to visit 
them after the war. 

General Watkis' motor-car was on a truck on 
our train and I travelled in it a good deal of the 
way, thereby getting a better view of the scenery, 
which, especially in the valley of the Loire, was 
gorgeously beautiful. European scenery is always 
a joy after the hideous monotony of the plains of 
India, and a better sample than the midlands of 
France in early October it would be hard to find. 
Altogether the journey from Marseilles to Orleans 
was a delight. 

Punctually to the scheduled time, our train 
reached the troop-siding at Orleans, and was met 
by Lieutenant Nepean, A.S.C., and many stal- 
wart orderlies of the London Scottish. This was 
the first Territorial battalion to land in France, 
and, as every one knows, it covered itself with 
glory at Messines in November. No one who 



38 ON TWO FRONTS 

had seen the battalion could have been surprised, 
for a finer-looking lot of men it would have been 
impossible to find anywhere. They were chafing 
at being employed at a base on camp and orderly 
duties; but they had not long to wait for their 
chance, and, when it came, they took it in a way 
that won the admiration of all, and set a splendid 
example to other Territorial battalions. 

We had had so much practice in entraining and 
detraining that it went like clockwork. In a very 
short time our column was formed up and started 
for Camp Circottes, where we arrived soon after 
dark. The Assistant Camp Commandant, Captain 
" Mango " Browne, of the 47th Sikhs, showed us 
the ground on which we were to camp, and every- 
thing was soon ready for the night. Captain 
Browne took part with a wing of his regiment in 
the attack on Neuve Chapelle at the end of 
October, and was awarded one of the first Military 
Crosses for gallant leading of his men. He was 
killed the following March in the big battle of 
Neuve Chapelle, to the great grief of his regiment 
and of all who knew him. 



CHAPTER IV 

HALF-WAY HOUSE 

A fortnight was spent at Camp Circottes, 
Orleans, to complete the equipment of the troops 
for the winter. Here the Indian soldier made the 
acquaintance of garments hitherto unknown to 
him : woollen vests and drawers of the pattern 
usually worn by Englishmen were provided, and 
the Indian gazed on them with surprise and 
delight. The weather was fairly warm at that 
time, and a costume of vest and drawers of a 
delicate pink appeared to him most suitable as a 
sort of fatigue uniform, though to the English eye 
it seemed somewhat to lack finish. Cardigan 
waistcoats and Balaclava caps were served out, and 
other luxuries unfamiliar in the East. The men 
were given khaki jackets and trousers of the same 
pattern as those worn by the British Tommy; but 
the sizes manufactured for Indians were far too 
small and made them look ridiculous. Later on 
we got the long Indian tunic made in khaki which 
is worn outside the trousers, and in this the men 
looked smart and well turned out. 

The subject of great-coats caused much heart- 
39 



4 o ON TWO FRONTS 

burning amongst the mule-drivers. According to 
the Indian scale of winter equipment, a mule- 
driver is entitled to what is termed a " coat, fol- 
lower's " — a short, shapeless garment of dirty 
yellow colour, lined with thin, worn-out blanket. 
It is absolutely useless for any purpose, possessing 
neither warmth nor waterproof qualities, and in 
appearance can only be described as horrible. The 
men called them mehtar ka brandi, or sweepers' 
overcoats — the sweeper being the lowest type of 
menial in the Indian domestic system. There 
were not sufficient of these coats to go round, and 
the supply was eked out with some second-hand 
great-coats and " coats, British warm " (or " coat, 
breeches warm ", as my servant called them). There 
seems to be no reason why the mule-driver, who 
endures probably more exposure than any other 
rank of the Army, should be expected to be satisfied 
with such an inferior overcoat. The Army Service 
Corps driver gets extra pay and the same kit as a 
cavalry trooper; but the poor Indian transport man 
gets considerably less pay and as little kit as pos- 
sible. It is to be hoped that after this war he will 
receive better treatment. 

Three mules of the 9th Mule Corps died in camp 
of sand-colic, and we had lost two on the voyage, 
so that we reached the front with only five casualties. 
This speaks well for the hardiness of the mules, 
and for the care taken of them by their drivers. 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 41 

The 9th Mule Corps consists of six troops of 
Punjabi Mahomedans and two troops of Dogras — 
the latter a high caste of Hindu. Under their 
contract with Government, sworn to on enlistment, 
Indian soldiers must not allow caste prejudices to 
interfere in any way with the performance of their 
duties on active service; nevertheless it is very 
necessary to consider them and to deal with them 
discreetly, though firmly. My Dogra kot duffa- 
dar, one Sunder Das, an elderly man, took a little 
time to settle down to European ways, and at 
first used to raise objections about trifles; but 
by degrees he and all the men came to realise 
that nothing was further from the wish of their 
sahibs than to order anything prejudicial to the 
rules of caste. Once convinced of this, they 
became very reasonable, and made no bones 
about small concessions when these were really 
necessary. 

In the next camp to us was the horse-transport. 
This was a rapidly improvised affair, officered by 
the Indian S. & T. Corps, and manned by newly 
enlisted recruits of the A.S.C. Nearly all the 
S. & T. Corps officers who were home on leave 
when war broke out had been commandeered by 
the War Office, and used to raise Divisional Trains 
for service with the two Indian Divisions, there 
being no such thing in the Indian system as a 
Divisional Train. 



42 ON TWO FRONTS 

These S. & T. Corps officers had had a very- 
uphill task. Some of them had been sent to 
Aldershot, where they had been given a few 
lectures on the organisation of Trains, after which 
they had been sent off to various depots to raise 
them; but they were much handicapped by the 
lack of trained N.C.O.s. Untrained men and 
horses were handed over to them, and they just 
had to do the best they could, and a very good best 
it was, though at first the men gave a lot of trouble, 
while the horses developed " pink-eye". This 
disease was very prevalent. Dead horses were a 
common sight, and the loss to Government must 
have been a pretty considerable item. 

The dovetailing into one another of the British 
and Indian systems of Supply and Transport was 
far from simple. The A.S.C. officers on the 
Staff of the Lines of Communication and the 
D.A.Q.M.G. of our Division did not understand 
the Indian system, and we knew little of the 
British. In India we had always been accustomed 
to look to the A.D.T. (Assistant Director of Trans- 
port) for orders : now we found that there was to 
be no such person. Colonel Hennessy, who left 
India as A.D.T. Lahore Division, was in a very 
ambiguous position, until it was decided that he 
should be O.C. Divisional Train. The Head- 
quarters Mule Transport were then attached to the 
Train, and we began to know where we were; for 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 43 

at first we had been taking orders from three 
different sources, and, as they were usually contra- 
dictory, we lived in daily fear of being placed under 
arrest. 

Whilst the weather remained good it was very 
pleasant at Circottes, though every one was 
naturally eager to get to the front. The Battle 
of the Aisne was then in full swing, and we all 
wanted to be in time to have a hand in it. We 
had no idea how critical the state of affairs really 
was, for the tide of the German advance on Paris 
had been stemmed, and the enemy had been thrown 
back from the Marne to the Aisne and was being 
firmly held there. The advance on Calais had not 
then begun. We all quite expected to join the 
British Expeditionary Force in time to march into 
Belgium : even the most pessimistic expected to 
be in Brussels by Christmas. But news of the fall 
of Antwerp and the disaster to the Royal Naval 
Division gave furiously to think. Orders came 
for the Lahore Division to proceed at once to the 
front, and troop-trains began to leave Orleans daily, 
each regiment taking its transport with it. The 
Headquarters Mule Transport remained almost 
to the last. 

We had established in a tent a little mess of our 
own, consisting of Captains Rennison and Steven- 
son, the two French interpreters and myself. There 
we got to know our interpreters better, and to 



44 ON TWO FRONTS 

appreciate them thoroughly. Singer (" pronounced 
Frenchwise, and nothing to do with sewing- 
machines ", as he told us) was a source of never- 
ending amusement, and became a great character 
in the Division. Seldom have I met a man of 
merrier temperament. He is a Parisian — very 
much of a " man about town " — and never stopped 
talking from morning till night. His English was 
really excellent, but when one says so much in a 
foreign language some of it must be wrong; he 
talked so fast that it was difficult to understand 
him, and sometimes we used to beg him to talk 
French, because then we needn't try. In addition 
to English, he could speak German fluently and 
one or two other languages as well. Whilst at 
Circottes we received a visit from Singer's father, 
whom we entertained with great pleasure. 

Moillis was a man of different type — much 
quieter, and more what the French call serieux. 
He came from Marseilles, but had been farming 
in South America when the war broke out : like a 
good Frenchman, he did not wait to be sent for, 
but came home at once to serve his country. He 
too spoke fluent English, and was a painstaking, 
eager instructor. Both Singer and Moillis re- 
garded themselves in a measure as our hosts, and 
no trouble was too great if they could help us in 
any way. Singer was officially interpreter 2nd 
Mule Corps and Moillis 9th Mule Corps, and very 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 45 

lucky we were to have the services of two such 
capital fellows. 

Rahin Baksh, my bearer, made a most successful 
cook, and we lived very well on the excellent army 
rations, supplemented by occasional purchases in 
the town. Sometimes we used to go into Orleans 
to dinner, generally walking the four miles in, and 
coming back by motor-lorry or any other con- 
veyance in which a lift could be obtained. One 
of the cafes in Orleans became a sort of club for 
officers of the Indian Corps. Very many of those 
good fellows gave their lives for their country 
within the next few months, and few escaped un- 
harmed. The chances of the British officer of 
Indian infantry are not great : there are only 
fourteen to each battalion, and they cannot help 
being conspicuous, although their uniform is 
exactly the same as that of the men. 

The people of Orleans seemed to take things 
very quietly. They were interested in the Indians, 
but there were no demonstrations as there had 
been in Marseilles and during the journey. As 
one got nearer the front, the demeanour of the 
people gradually changed, becoming quieter, more 
serious and more determined. Orleans had been 
the scene of fierce fighting in the war of 1 8 70, and 
there are still people living there who can remember 
it : they do not want to see the Germans again, 
and now, thank Heaven, they never will. 



46 ON TWO FRONTS 

We had some distinguished visitors at Cir- 
cottes, including Prince Arthur of Connaught. 
One day a major and a subaltern strolled in to 
our lines and asked if they might look round : the 
major was Sir F. E. Smith, and the subaltern Neil 
Primrose. Major Smith told us that he had been 
appointed to the Staff of General Willcocks, our 
Corps Commander, and he seemed much interested 
in the Mule Corps. The articles which afterwards 
appeared in the English papers by " Eye- Witness 
with the Indian Troops " were, I believe, written 
by him. 

It was very amusing to read some of the articles 
in the English papers which appeared during our 
stay at the Advance Base. One described a gal- 
lant charge by Bengal Lancers; another a night 
raid by Gurkhas, who were said to have hurled 
their kukris through the air with such accuracy as 
to decapitate many Germans. A wonderful ima- 
gination some of these journalists possess, and 
wonderful, too, are the ways of the Censor, for 
when these articles appeared there were no Indian 
troops at the front at all, and it was some time 
before there were any Gurkhas. There were only 
two Gurkha battalions in the Lahore Division, 
both of which had remained in Egypt with their 
Brigade; and it was not until the Meerut Division 
reached the front, early in November, that a single 
Gurkha took part in the fighting. To the English 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 47 

journalist every Indian soldier is apparently either 
a Gurkha or a Sikh. The first Indian regiments 
to come into action were neither : that honour 
belonged to the 57th Rifles and the 129th Baluchis, 
both of which are regiments of mixed composition, 
containing some Sikhs, but no Gurkhas. 

Every day one of us would go to the Staff 
Office to inquire whether there were any orders for 
us to leave, as battalions were going daily, and the 
camp was gradually emptying. When I went to 
make the usual inquiry on October 18, I found 
the Staff Office closed and the Staff gone! Our 
poor little unit had apparently been overlooked 
altogether. I telephoned to the Railway Trans- 
port Officer to ask whether any train arrangements 
had been made for us, and he replied that we were 
booked to start at five a.m. next morning, and that 
we should be at the station at one o'clock. It was 
a pitch-dark night, and our march to the station, 
about four miles away, was nearly a serious fiasco. 
It was very difficult to find the way out of camp, 
and the fact that the mules, not having carried a 
pack since leaving India, had apparently decided 
that their days of bondage were over, greatly 
enhanced our difficulties. If a mule means to get 
rid of his pack, he usually succeeds. Loads fell 
off, and, while they were being replaced, the 
column got spread out and lost touch. One party 
of some fifty mules missed a turning, and it was 



48 ON TWO FRONTS 

only owing to the remarkable intelligence of the 
naick in charge that they linked up later with the 
rest of the column, and we reached the station 
intact. I had many anxious moments, and the 
prospect of arriving at the station minus about half 
my command was not an engaging one. How- 
ever, all's well that ends well. At i a.m. in the 
station-yard Rennison received the report, "All 
present and correct ", and the train steamed out of 
the station at the appointed hour. Rennison 
received from the R.T.O. the schedule of timings, 
with orders not to breathe a word to anyone till 
the train had started. I saw his gape of astonish- 
ment when he looked at the papers, but had to 
possess my soul in patience for a couple of hours. 

" Where on earth do you think we are going? " 
he said as soon as we were off. 

" Hang it all, you don't mean to say we're not 
for the front? " was my reply. 

He handed me the schedule, and, to my amaze- 
ment, I saw that our destination was Calais! 
What could this mean? Were we to leave the 
Division, and work at a base, or was our front 
falling back? There was nothing for it but to 
follow the example of the Liberal Government, 
and " wait and see". 

This journey was very different from the one 
to Orleans. There was much greater pressure of 
traffic; there were no crowds, no cheering and no 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 49 

presents. No halts for watering had been 
arranged; but progress was slow, and we watered 
whenever we got a chance. We were timed to 
reach Calais at eight next morning, but it was not 
until after 5 p.m. that we arrived. The men had 
been told that the coast of "Vilayet" (England) 
could be seen from Calais, and they were greatly 
excited about this. As a rule, only Rajahs and 
distinguished Indian officers see the wonderful 
country of the Sahibs, and the humble driver 
intended to return to India and tell the people of 
his village that he, too, had had that privilege, but 
unfortunately it was raining hard; there was a 
thick mist, and no white cliffs were visible. This 
was a great disappointment, but was more than 
atoned for by the receipt of orders to proceed at 
once to Wizerne. Hurriedly we searched our 
maps. Yes, Wizerne was close to what we knew 
to be the front : we were not to be left behind 
after all. 

In high spirits the journey was continued, and 
at about midnight on the 2.0th— 2 1st October the 
train arrived at its destination. It was pitch dark, 
and there was no sign of life. I got out to ask 
for orders, and found the R.T.O. He turned out 
to be Major Turner, R.E., the eldest of the famous 
cricketing family, of whom A. J. and W. M. are 
so well known. 

" Where the something something have you 

E 



So ON TWO FRONTS 

sprung from? 55 he said. "And who are you, 
anyway? 5> 

I explained. 

"Well, I don 5 t know anything about you. 
Why didn 5 t you say you were coming ? 55 (Nobody 
likes being turned out at midnight.) 

I explained again, and was told to " get a move 
on and unload, and when you 5 ve got things going 
come and have a drink. 55 There were no lights at 
the station, and no orders; so we hastily unloaded 
and led the mules off the platform and into a 
neighbouring field. A slight drizzle was falling. 
It was not a nice night. 

When all was finished, Rennison — conscientious 
as always — put his valise in the field alongside the 
men, and Singer lay down beside him. I returned 
to my friend Turner and camped with him in the 
waiting-room; but it was a short night. By six 
next morning I was off, mounted on Mahdi, to 
find Divisional Headquarters, I reported our 
arrival to Colonel Hennessy, who told me we 
should not move that day. He was just starting 
out in a car to visit some of the companies of the 
Train, and invited me to go with him. The sky 
seemed to be alive with aeroplanes, which were 
a novelty to us from India, and we could hear the 
guns quite distinctly, though they were a consider- 
able distance away. After a most interesting 
round, the Colonel dropped me at my camp, and 



HALF-WAY HOUSE 51 

1 reported to Rennison that we should not move 
that day. Hardly had I done so, when an orderly 
appeared with a note, conveying an order to march 
"at 2 p.m. in the direction of Ebblinghem "; so 
at 2 p.m. in the direction of Ebblinghem we 
marched, dovetailing into a procession of the whole 
of the Lahore Division. 

And so good-bye to journeys and bases and 
advance bases. Here was the real thing at last. 
Every step would take us nearer to the front and 
to the enemy. We of Headquarters Mule Trans- 
port recognised that our part was but a modest one, 
but we were prepared to play it to the full, and to 
do all in our humble power to further the good 
cause. 



CHAPTER V 

IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 

On board ship, when studying " Field Service 
Regulations, Part II.", we had read about billeting 
and billeting parties. Our orders contained a note 
to the effect that ." billeting parties would be sent 
to Ebblinghem ". We were quite ready for this. 
" Fall in, Stevie, Singer, and Sergeant Staton," 
This was our billeting party previously detailed : 
Singer to do the talking, Stevie by his rank and 
presence to carry weight, and Staton to do the 
work. Their orders were quite simple. " You will 
proceed to Ebblinghem, report to the A.Q.M.G., 
and arrange billets for the Headquarters Mule 
Transport." Off they rode, and that was the last 
we saw of them for about three days. 

We marched off gaily at 2 p.m. There seemed 
no reason why the march should not be entirely 
uneventful. Ebblinghem was twelve miles away, 
and we got there at 9.30 p.m. Breakdown after 
breakdown occurred. Our place was behind the 
Field Ambulances and in front of the Train : thank 
the Lord it was in front of the Train, much of which 
did not get in that night. The Field Ambulances 

52 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 53 

had wagon-transport in addition to mule-carts, and 
their wagons were fearfully overloaded. Some- 
where after dark there was a longer halt than usual, 
and, going on to see what had happened, I found 
one of the ambulance wagons broken down. The 
wagon was being unloaded and all the load was 
being piled up in the middle of the road. The 
Transport Officer of the column, who had a truly 
marvellous command of language, and the 
D.A.Q.M.G. of the Division, who was nearly as 
good, were engaged in haranguing the unfortunate 
medical officers who had lost their heads. That 
breakdown delayed the whole Division at least two 
hours. Everyone took the name of everyone 
else; the medical Major was going to report 
the Transport Officer for insolence, and the 
D.A.Q.M.G. was going to report the medical 
officers for negligence and incompetence; but of 
course all was forgotten afterwards, and no reports 
were made. 

When the column reached Ebblinghem it was 
pitch dark, and there was no sign of our billeting 
party, so we did the best we could, which was 
to bivouac in a field and wait till morning. The 
15th Sikhs were close to us. Rennison and I, 
with some of their officers, made our way to a 
small es famine t, where we managed to get some 
coffee and bread and butter before turning in for 
the night. Having discovered that Divisional 



54 ON TWO FRONTS 

Headquarters were at Lynde, some two miles 
away, I turned out at break of day and rode there 
to ask for further orders. Colonel Hennessy said 
that we should have gone to Lynde, and that he 
had diverted our billeting party, who had arranged 
good billets for us there; but, as these orders had 
never reached us, we obviously could not carry 
them out. Our orders now were to get to Bailleul 
as soon as possible. Colonel Hodson, 1 A.Q.M.G., 
was just starting in a car for Bailleul to do the 
billeting, and told me to send a billeting party to 
report to him at the Mairie in that town. I rode 
back to Ebblinghem and despatched Sergeant 
Levings and Moillis. We moved off shortly 
afterwards and marched all day. 

It was a longish march, but there were no break- 
downs this time. When about three miles from 
Bailleul we were met at a corner by a military 
policeman, who had been placed there to divert 
certain troops to Meteren, and Mule Transport 
Headquarters was on his list. 

At about 6 p.m. we reached Meteren in heavy 
rain after a march of sixteen miles, which rather 
tried the feet of the aged artificers. Here Captain 
Alexander, nth Lancers, Staff-Captain Jullundur 
Brigade, had arranged billets for us. The whole 
of that brigade was in Meteren, and we were to 

1 Brigadier-General Hodson, C.B., D.S.O., died of wounds 
received at Suvla Bay when commanding a brigade. 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 55 

be temporarily attached to them. Our area con- 
sisted of three sides of a square, in the centre of 
which stood the church; the mules were picketed 
in a field close by. As we were now without an 
interpreter, I had to arrange the billets. There 
were women in all the houses, and in a few of 
them old men, and I hardly liked putting our 
mule-drivers in their clean, nicely-kept rooms. 
There were a couple of barns in which accommoda- 
tion for sixty or seventy could be found, and some 
remained with the mules in the field, bivouacking 
under the carts; but the rest had to go into the 
houses, and the French people welcomed them with 
open arms. When it transpired that their last 
visitors had been Germans — and that very recently 
— this was not surprising. The doors of the 
houses still bore the chalk billeting-marks of the 
Germans — "8 Offiziere", " 20 Manner", etc. 
The enemy had occupied the village for a fortnight, 
and had been driven out with the bayonet by 
British troops only a few days before. I tried to 
explain to the villagers that the men were well 
behaved and would do them no harm, but this was 
really unnecessary. The relief of entertaining 
friendly troops banished any fears they might 
otherwise have had of the unfamiliar Indian soldier. 
Our " superior establishment " were very com- 
fortably housed, the villagers being most anxious 
to give them every attention. Ressaidar Amir 



$6 ON TWO FRONTS 

Khan, the adjutant of the 2nd Mule Corps, a 
magnificent-looking veteran who had served for 
many years in the 15th Lancers, with the Veterinary 
Officer and the Quartermaster DufTadar, had a 
nice little cottage owned by two old ladies. My 
adjutant, Jemadar Wali Mahomed, and Clerk 
Mangat Rai had another. The kitchens were 
handed over to them in which to cook their food. 
Beds were offered them, but they all preferred to 
sleep on straw on the floor, for a four-poster bed 
is strange to the Indian and he would feel uncom- 
fortable sleeping in one. In their own country 
they have charpoys, low string beds. 

Rennison and I found quarters in an estaminet 
at the corner of the square. Here, too, the land- 
lady was eager to prepare her best rooms, but we 
elected to sleep in an empty room overlooking the 
street, so as to be ready to turn out at any moment. 
Orders were to sleep in our clothes, and to leave 
an orderly at Brigade Headquarters to bring a 
message if there was to be a move. After seeing 
everybody comfortably settled, and posting sentries, 
we returned to the estaminet, where the landlady 
had taken upon herself to prepare a most excellent 
dinner for us. Rahin Baksh reported that she 
would not hear of his cooking our rations, and had 
insisted on providing the food and cooking it her- 
self. During dinner, our hostess told stories of 
the German occupation. It appeared that the 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 57 

German General and his Staff had occupied the 
estaminet, and had taken away with them all the 
bed-clothes, the landlord's only horse, and the few- 
bottles of wine which they had not succeeded in 
drinking during their stay. " But," said the land- 
lady, with a wink, " they did not find my private 
store — only the public cellar." Thereupon she 
produced some excellent vin rouge, and joined us 
in drinking the health of the Allies and confusion 
to all their enemies, especially that particular 
German General and his Hunnish Staff. 

Madame was a good raconteuse. The tales she 
told made one long to get at the Germans and 
make them pay in full for their abominable cruelty 
and cowardly behaviour. Their treatment of the 
women of the village had been too horrible to 
describe. No wonder they all looked cowed and 
dejected : for ' they were living in terror of the 
return of the Huns, who had apparently made a 
clean sweep of all portable articles of any value 
from every house, had eaten and drunk all they 
could get, and had commandeered all the girls — - 
as Madame put it — " exactly as if they were 
requisitioning hay." The only thing to be said 
for them was that Meteren was not one of the vil- 
lages where inoffensive non-combatants had been 
shot. That much the inhabitants had to be thank- 
ful for; but, in all conscience, it was bad enough 
without. Our hostess informed us that when the 



58 ON TWO FRONTS 

British soldiers entered the village and ousted the 
enemy, the women fell on their necks and hugged 
them. She herself — careless of the remonstrances 
of monsieur, who was " oh, so jealous!" — had 
embraced a burly Highlander for fully five 
minutes. 

During the evening Mollis turned up with 
Sergeant Levings. After a long wait at Bailleul, 
they had discovered our whereabouts and ridden 
back. 

We turned in about eleven, and it had just 
struck three when we were awakened by a stone 
hitting our window. The orderly from Brigade 
Headquarters stood at the door with orders for 
us to be ready to march in two hours. Rennison 
hastened to the mule-lines, and I to the billets to 
turn out the men. In almost every house the 
women, fully dressed, were sitting in the kitchen 
drinking coffee, far too frightened of the return 
of the Boches to go to bed. I tried to reassure 
them by saying that Meteren would never see the 
Germans again. Our men were loud in their 
praises of the kindness and hospitality of their 
hostesses : many had been given coffee, which they 
were learning to like. 

By 5 a.m. we had fallen in, ready to join the 
column. The destination of the brigade was 
Estaires, some seven miles south of Meteren, and 
our road lay through country which had been the 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 59 

scene of heavy fighting during the last few days. 
Vieux Berquin and Neuf Berquin, through which 
we passed, had suffered greatly from shell-fire, 
both from enemy guns and our own : in both 
villages the church was badly damaged. This had 
been the case at Meteren also, and was due to the 
German trick of posting machine-gun sections in 
all the church towers. There had been a direct hit 
on the clock in the church tower at Vieux Berquin, 
completely shattering its face. Hundreds of 
refugees were hurrying away from the scenes of 
slaughter, carrying such belongings as they could 
manage, some in carts with old worn-out horses, 
or with donkeys. All looked terribly sad and 
dejected. It was harrowing to see these long 
processions of destitute people. 

Early in the march our original billeting party 
appeared. They had had no kit or rations, but 
had not fared badly, thanks to Singer who was 
unequalled as a forager : he could always produce 
a plate of soup or roast chicken or some such 
luxury apparently from nowhere, and did so on 
this march. About midday we were sitting by 
the roadside during a halt, contemplating a meal 
of bully beef and biscuits, when Singer appeared 
and announced, " Lunch is ready. Will you have 
it here, or in that cottage? " We voted for the 
roadside, in case the column should move off. 
Immediately four French maidens appeared, bear- 



60 ON TWO FRONTS 

ing plates of steaming soup, followed by other 
luxuries. It was quite clear that in Singer we had 
discovered a treasure. Whilst lunching, we had 
our first sight of the enemy in the shape of a Taube 
which flew over the column and hovered about for 
some time. 

Three battalions of the Ferozepore Brigade — 
the Connaught Rangers, 57th Rifles and 129th 
Baluchi s — were sent in motor-buses to Kemmel, in 
Belgium, to reinforce General Allenby's Division 
which was hard pressed. These battalions went 
straight into action somewhere near Messines. It 
was some time before they rejoined the Division, 
and, when they did, many a good man was left 
behind, all three regiments having suffered heavily. 
Major Barwell, Captain Gordon and Lieutenant 
Clarke of the 57 th were killed, and Captain 
Vincent of the 129th; Captain Forbes of the 57th 
and Captain Maclean of the 129th were wounded. 
The latter, unable to move, was left behind in a 
village when our troops retired, and Major Attel, 
I. M.S., the doctor of the regiment, stayed with 
him; both were taken prisoners by the Germans, 
but shortly afterwards our troops retook the vil- 
lage, and they were released. Many stories were 
told of the gallantry •■displayed by Captain Singh, 
the Indian doctor of the 57th, who was given one 
of the first Military Crosses but did not live to 
wear it, being killed in action shortly afterwards. 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 61 

Singh was educated in England, and was as white 
a man as ever lived. The Brigade was thanked 
in orders by General Allenby for its timely 
assistance and gallant behaviour. Thus the first 
Indian troops to fight in France set a splendid 
example, which was followed by those who came 
later. 

Estaires was within a mile or two of the fighting- 
line. The guns boomed loudly; machine-gun and 
rifle fire were plainly audible, and a heavy battery 
was in action in the field next to our mule-lines. 
As before, an orderly had been posted at head- 
quarters to bring word if we were to move. In 
the middle of the night the firing became very 
intense, and the rumble of heavy traffic came from 
the road outside our villa. Rennison woke up, 
and wondered whether the Division was moving : 
perhaps we had been forgotten again and should 
find ourselves in the morning in the hands of the 
Boche! I went to headquarters to make sure, 
and found the Staff hard at work. The Jullundur 
Brigade had taken up a position covering Estaires, 
and our batteries had gone into action. At ten 
next morning Divisional Headquarters would 
march to Locon. 

On October 24 and 25 there was severe fighting. 
Sir John French's despatch has disclosed the fact 
that on those days he had grave cause for anxiety, 
and that the arrival of the Lahore Division was 



62 ON TWO FRONTS 

most opportune. On the way to Locon we passed 
through Vieille Chapelle, where rifle and machine- 
gun fire sounded as if it were within a few hundred 
yards of us. General Watkis and his Staff were 
standing by the bridge over the canal, studying 
maps and making dispositions, and General Watkis 
beckoned me to him and asked whether I had seen 
General Carnegy, commanding the Jullundur 
Brigade. I said that I had not; whereupon I was 
told to provide two mounted orderlies to go and 
search for him. We were told to park in a field 
hard by and be ready to move at a moment's 
notice. " You can't go on yet," said the General, 
" or you might get scuppered." There was a 
feeling of suppressed excitement in the air. For 
many of us it was the first experience of war, and 
we were all on edge to do something. Spare men 
and mules were told off ready to go up at once with 
ammunition if required; but, to our disappoint- 
ment, none was wanted. The great drawback 
about that part of the country is that it is so abso- 
lutely flat that one can see nothing. One might 
be on the very fringe of a battle and yet be unable 
to see whatjwas happening. 

We were ordered to march along the bank of 
the Lys Canal to Maupres, near Locon. All the 
time heavy firing continued : none came our way, 
however, and we felt rather out of it. That feel- 
ing is not a pleasant one, and I always had it in 



IN TOUCH WITH THE ENEMY 63 

France. In trench-warfare this is inevitable for 
a transport unit. In open fighting, ammunition 
mules go into action with the troops, but when 
attacks are made from trenches this is, of course, 
impossible. 

Our stay at Maupres was brief. The camp 
allotted to us by the A.Q.M.G. was situated on 
the east side of the canal, and our billets were in 
some empty houses on the canal bank, the only 
line of retreat being across a single drawbridge. 
Colonel Cobbe, G.S.O. (now Lieut-General), 
visited us the next day, and told us to get across 
to the west of the canal, and to take care to conceal 
our carts with branches of trees, leaves, etc., as 
aeroplane observers might mistake them for guns. 
Several Taubes came over during our brief stay, 
and we witnessed for the first time contests in the 
air between our own and enemy machines. It is 
a curious point that, although during my six 
months on the Western Front I watched numbers 
of air fights, I never saw one machine on either 
side brought down. One Boche aeroplane de- 
scended behind our lines from engine-trouble, but 
that was all. 

Comic relief was provided at Maupres by 
Sergeant Grainge, our Quartermaster-Sergeant, 
who walked out of his cottage after dinner one 
night and stepped straight into the canal, disap- 
pearing from view. No harm was done beyond 



64 ON TWO FRONTS 

the soaking of his uniform, but he had to put up 
with a good deal of chaff from the members of his 
mess. 

On October 28 we marched back to Estaires 
and reoccupied our old billets, and there we re- . 
mained for several weeks. That night, being 
assured that there would be no move and that the 
Jullundur Brigade entrenched in front of us had 
the enemy well in hand, we took off our clothes 
for the first time since leaving Orleans ten days 
before, and turned into bed. Some of the infantry 
did not take theirs off for months. In this war 
there can be no comparison between the infantry 
and any other arm of the service. I take off my 
hat to every officer and man of them. Theirs is 
the greatest danger and the greatest discomfort; 
the greatest responsibility and the greatest hardship 
always. And never have they been found wanting. 
More power to the infantry, whether English, 
Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Colonial or Indian. It is 
a pleasure to do anything at all to help them, and 
a privilege to serve in the same force. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 

From October 26 onwards, trench-warfare set 
in for the Lahore Division. The Jullundur 
Brigade held a position from Picantin to Fauquis- 
sart, and on their right were the 34th Pioneers, 
9th Bhopals and the two companies of Sappers. 
For a week or two no supports or reserves were 
available : these units had to hold the line un- 
assisted. They had a very hard time, for fire was 
incessant. The three batteries of the Lahore Divi- 
sion were in action also, and some French batteries 
supported the line. 

On the 28 th an attack was made by our troops 
on the village of Neuve Chapelle. This involved 
severe fighting, in which a wing of the 47th Sikhs, 
the 9th Bhopals, and the 20th and 21st Companies 
Sappers and Miners played a conspicuous part, 
suffering heavy casualties. The village was taken, 
but, in face of the murderous machine-gun fire 
encountered in the streets, had to be evacuated. 
In the Sapper Companies, every one of the eight 
officers was a casualty, and nearly fifty per cent, 
of the Indian rank and file; but they covered thern- 
f 65 



66 ON TWO FRONTS 

selves with glory. An officer who was present 
informed Colonel Coffin, the C.R.E., that 
" nothing could have exceeded the gallantry of the 
R.E. officers." Captain Richardson, leading his 
men, was killed, and Lieutenant Almond with him. 
Captain Paris, at the head of the 21st Company, 
was hit and believed killed, but he was afterwards 
found to have been taken prisoner. Lieutenants 
Nosworthy and Rait Kerr, both severely wounded, 
were carried back by their men. Both gained the 
Military Cross. Nosworthy told me, when he 
returned to the front some months later — minus 
a thumb, but otherwise recovered from his many 
wounds — that he had never enjoyed a day so much, 
and that he had run his sword clean through a fat 
German officer ! The 47th lost a fine officer killed 
in Captain McCleverty ; and Major " Buster" 
Browne, one of the most popular officers in the 
Indian Army, was very severely wounded. It is 
sad to think that so fine a sportsman is a permanent 
invalid. The 9th Bhopals, too, had heavy losses. 
These first few days were spent by us of the 
Transport in trying to locate the various parties 
of our Corps, which had been allotted to units. 
Gradually we found out where they all were and 
used to pay daily visits to them. For the most 
part, units kept their first line transport a mile or 
so behind their trenches — some in farms and some 
in the open. They had to do a good deal of 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 67 

shell-dodging, for the Boches shelled all buildings 
in the vicinity of the firing-line. At night the 
rations were delivered by the Train to regimental 
parties, who transferred them to the mule-carts or 
pack-mules, which took them to the regimental 
headquarters, if possible, or to the beginning of the 
communication trenches. Every now and then 
casualties to the drivers occurred, sometimes when 
taking up the rations at night from stray rifle- 
bullets, and sometimes from shell-fire during the 
day. Units used their mule-transport to replenish 
their ammunition and for carrying stores : this 
relieved the men of considerable labour. In the 
British Divisions, regimental parties, on taking 
over from the Train, had to man-handle everything 
to the trenches. 

Naick Akbar Khan, in charge of the transport 
with the 47th Sikhs, was the first N.C.O.of the 9th 
Mule Corps to be hit. He stopped three shrapnel 
bullets with his thigh and was removed to 
Brighton, whence he wrote in a lordly tone, 
describing the extreme luxury with which he was 
surrounded and conveying his approval of u Vila- 
yet " as a country. He made no mention of his 
wounds, though they were severe. In his place 
Lance-Naick Mangoo was promoted to be tem- 
porary Naick — a happy selection, for he proved 
himself courageous and efficient, and did excellent 
work both in France and Gallipoli. 



68 ON TWO FRONTS 

Only a few days after Mangoo took over his 
new command, shells began to fall thick and fast 
close to the shed in which his mules were picketed. 
Hastily he summoned his men, and, mindful of 
Standing Orders, unshackled the mules and led 
them to a flank. Scarcely were they out of the 
shed when a " Black Maria " hurtled through the 
roof and exploded exactly where the mules had 
been. Not a man or mule was touched. Mangoo 
was warmly commended for his prompt action and 
presence of mind. 

There were certain places behind the firing-line 
which the enemy seemed to regard as particularly 
attractive targets. One of these was Laventie 
Church; in fact, the whole of the village was an 
unhealthy spot. For a radius of one hundred yards 
round the church there was scarcely a house which 
had not been practically levelled to the ground; 
the main street was pitted with " crump " holes, 
and the church itself was a ruin. We used to 
watch the Boche gunners endeavouring to score 
a bull's eye on its spire, in which they eventually 
succeeded. I remember one day, when the bom- 
bardment was particularly heavy, Padre Knott 
rode up on his fat pony, wearing a worried look. 

"What am I to do?" he said. "General 
Carnegy has ordered me to bury an officer in 
Laventie churchyard at three o'clock, and it's just 
three now." 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 69 

I expressed the opinion that this was an occasion 
when an officer might disobey an order on his own 
responsibility, and defer the allotted task to a more 
favourable season. The padre, new to military 
discipline, thought that orders must be carried out 
at all costs. He was unaware of a certain para- 
graph in F. S. Regulations, of a " heads I win, 
tails you lose " nature, which states roughly that, 
if you carry out an order which circumstances have 
rendered foolish, you do so at your peril, but that 
if you don't carry it out, you are liable to be shot 
at dawn. In this case, knowing the General, there 
was no cause for alarm. 

It was in Laventie that one of our field batteries, 
coming into action for the first time, was picked 
up at once by a German battery and severely dealt 
with. Before proper cover could be provided, two 
of the guns had been hit, and several of the per- 
sonnel killed and wounded. But that Artillery 
Brigade was fairly fortunate afterwards, at any rate 
during the winter. So well did they conceal their 
guns, that the enemy seldom found their positions, 
and they were to be seen day after day in the same 
place. 

Some inhabitants continued to live in the vil- 
lages close behind the firing-line, in spite of the fact 
that they were shelled every day. Picantin was 
having its morning " strafe " when I passed 
through on my way back from my rounds one day. 



70 ON TWO FRONTS 

Two aged dames, emerging from a cottage, asked 
whether it was safe for them to remain in the 
village: they were reluctant to leave, for it was 
their home and held all their belongings. I recom- 
mended a speedy retreat, at any rate to Estaires. 
On account of the prevalence of spying, and the 
casualties caused by snipers in these villages behind 
the line, it was afterwards decided to clear out all 
the inhabitants — undoubtedly a wise move — for 
there was nothing to prevent the Huns from 
obtaining information in this way. Spies were 
occasionally caught and brought into Estaires; 
then, after an interview with Captain Dyce, the 
A. P.M., they would disappear. Rumour had.it 
that our French neighbours carried out the 
executions. 

On the return of the Ferozepore Brigade, we 
learnt something of the fighting round Messines : 
it had evidently been touch and go. The men 
brought back many trophies in the shape of 
helmets, great-coats, rifles, etc., and enjoyed re- 
counting how they had secured them. One story 
told by a havildar serves to prove that such a thing 
as a decent German does exist. The havjldar 
and a few of his men lost touch with their com- 
pany, and were taken prisoners. A German 
officer who had served in China in the Boxer 
rising of 1900, and had there learned to admire 
Indian troops, spoke to them in Hindustani. He 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 71 

told these men that the Kaiser had directed that 
any Indians taken prisoner were to have their 
throats cut, but that he did not intend to carry out 
this inhuman order. He gave them food, and, 
when night fell, having relieved them of their rifles 
and bayonets, told them how to rejoin their unit. 

Two men of the 2nd Mule Corps came back full 
of a thrilling experience they had had, which was 
corroborated by the Transport Officer of the regi- 
ment to which they were attached. Their mules, 
carrying ammunition, were tethered behind a hay- 
stack, and were left behind in the withdrawal of 
a portion of our line : the drivers were seized and 
taken into a Hun trench. After a time, their 
captors being fully occupied with their own affairs, 
the two Indians managed to slip away. They did 
not make straight for our lines. Not a bit of it. 
They sought and found the haystack, recovered 
their mules, reloaded them with the ammunition- 
boxes, and strolled in. 

The 2nd and 9th Mule Corps were now all 
together again (excepting those left in Egypt). 
To ensure proper control, Sergeant Levings was 
posted to the Jullundur Brigade, Sergeant Staton 
to the Ferozepore Brigade, and Conductor Green 
to the Divisional troops. Each was given a pro- 
portion of men and animals, artificers and repairing 
material : this simplified matters considerably, and 
the two Brigades became self-contained. 



72 ON TWO FRONTS 

I continued my usual rounds, seeing some 
portion each day, while Rennison was responsible 
at headquarters and visited the ammunition 
columns. The adjutants looked after the lines 
and billets, and accompanied us on our rounds. 
Very often these were entirely uneventful, but 
every now and then we would turn up somewhere 
in time for a shell-storm. One such case occurred 
when I was visiting the Jullundur Brigade with 
Sergeant Levings. We had seen all the mules, 
and were turning back, when we met Lieutenant 
Betham, of the 15th Sikhs, labouring under a 
heavy burden of rifles which he was taking .up to 
his quarterguard. This not being " a one-man 
job ", as G. P. Huntley is fond of saying, we lent 
a hand. On arrival at the quarterguard which 
was close behind the trenches at Fauquissart, Lieu- 
tenant Brunskill, of the 47 th Sikhs, asked me to 
lunch; and, whilst partaking of an excellent stew 
cooked by him, a shell-storm began. The cottage 
next to that in which Ralston the adjutant, 
Brunskill and I were having our meal, received 
a shell through the roof. There was a good deal 
of noise, but neither Ralston nor Brunskill took 
the slightest notice. When I rejoined Sergeant 
Levings after lunch, he pointed out about a dozen 
shell-holes along the hundred yards of road be- 
tween the quarterguard and the cottage, which had 
not been there when we passed along. To me this 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 73 

was a bit of an adventure; but to the infantry 
officers it was apparently an every-day occurrence 
unworthy of attention. 

Brunskill made a reconnaissance one night, 
penetrating with one man into the enemy trenches, 
and obtaining information of much value to his 
Brigadier : for this he received the Military Cross. 
Shortly afterwards he was badly wounded, and 
lost his left eye; but he was soon back at the front, 
only to receive another severe wound in the leg. 
Last time I met him, in London, he was fuming 
because the Medical Board would not pass him fit 
to go out again. 

It was arranged that the chargers of all officers 
who became casualties should be taken over by 
Headquarters Transport, and kept until required 
for re-issue to reinforcement officers. This plan 
gave us a lot of spare horses, and provided employ- 
ment for our spare men who had previously had 
little to do. 

A French interpreter arrived in camp one morn- 
ing riding a little bay horse, the property of one 
of the Sapper officers. He had orders to change 
it, as it was not up to its owner's weight. There 
were a good many animals in the lines, and Renni- 
son told him to take his choice. Now, this inter- 
preter had a very good opinion of himself, and 
especially did he fancy himself as a judge of horse- 
flesh. He said he would like to see the animals 



74 ON TWO FRONTS 

put through their paces. This was done, and he 
picked out three or four, and, mounting, tried 
them himself; but he was not satisfied with any 
of them. He said, " I don't think there is any- 
thing here at present which will suit the Major. I 
will come in again in a few days' time, and see if 
you've got some more." At his next visit a 
similar performance was gone through. All the 
animals came in for criticism. One had "very 
little bone ", another " not much of a shoulder ", 
and so on. Presently his eye fell on a little horse 
at the end of the line. "Ah," he said, " that 
looks more like what I'm looking for." Renni- 
son, with a twinkle in his eye, ordered the sais to 
put on the saddle; and our friend trotted com- 
placently away on the self-same animal that he had 
himself brought in to change. We never heard 
what the Major said. The interpreter did not 
seem inclined to tell us when we inquired. 

It was during the early days of November that 
the first Battle of Ypres took place. The Kaiser 
is said to have decreed the capture of the town on 
the i st. Ypres is some fourteen miles north of 
the position then held by the Lahore Division, and 
the thunder of the guns day and night was clear 
evidence of the violence of the fighting. The 
Germans constantly attacked in our sector at this 
time, but the Division held its ground tenaciously, 
though the daily toll of casualties was mounting up. 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 75 

Large reinforcements passed through Estaires 
en route to Ypres, where the 7th Division — or 
what was left of it — was bearing the brunt of the 
attack. The whole of the 1st French Cavalry 
Division passed our villa one morning, moving 
north, and a brave show they made in their hand- 
some uniforms — Chasseurs, Dragoons, Hussars — 
fine men, and mounted on fine horses. At that 
time the French were still fighting in their peace 
uniforms, and very conspicuous they were, espe- 
cially the red pantaloons of the infantry. We 
dressed up Singer in English khaki, but he retained 
his French cap. Moillis adopted the loongi, or 
Indian headdress, in which he rather fancied 
himself. 

The story of the Battle of Ypres and the failure 
of the great dash for Calais can be read in official 
despatches. The Lahore Divison, though not 
actually in the battle, played an important role, for 
they held a vital part of the line through which 
the enemy might otherwise have broken. 

It was just at this time that the Meerut Division 
reached the front, to be greeted by terrific shelling 
and fierce infantry attacks. The 2nd and 8th 
Gurkhas, in particular, caught it hot and strong 
the moment they arrived; the 1st Seaforths, too, 
and many other units. Here fell one of my oldest 
and best friends, Captain Beauchamp Duff, of the 
1 st Gurkhas, who was attached to the 2nd. He 



76 ON TWO FRONTS 

was killed within an hour of reaching the trenches, 
when taking a company of Gurkhas to reinforce 
the Seaforths. We had been contemporaries at 
Clifton and Sandhurst. Captain Wicks, of the 
Seaforths, another old Cliftonian, who was with 
him' when he died, testified to the gallantry with 
which he handled his men. Duff had seen a lot 
of active service, and was a coming man. 

On November 15 occurred a memorable event. 
Field- Marshal Lord Roberts arrived at the front 
to pay a visit to the Indian troops. A parade was 
held in the Grande Place of Estaires, at which one 
officer and three men of every unit in the Division 
were present. In addition, every man who was 
able to get there fought for a place in the hope 
of catching a glimpse of the great soldier, and 
helping to cheer him. He arrived in a motor-car 
with his daughter, one Staff Officer, and our Corps 
Commander, General Willcocks, and was received 
by General Watkis and the Staff of the Division. 
It was a cold day, and, seeing that the troops were 
parading without great-coats, Lord Roberts re- 
moved his own despite the protests of those with 
him. He walked round the lines and spoke to 
many of the men, amongst them my old kot 
duffadar, Sunder Das, who was filled with pride 
at receiving a word from his former Commander- 
in-Chief. As every one knows, the name of 
" Bobs Bahadur " is a household word in India. 



INDIAN CORPS MAKES HISTORY 77 

Every recruit has heard of his fame. He asked 
Sunder Das his age, and seemed pleased with the 
reply, " Fifty- three, but as hale and hearty as many 
a boy of twenty." Lord Roberts spoke Hindu- 
stani with the utmost fluency, though it must have 
been nearly twenty years since he left India. After 
the men had been inspected, all the officers were 
introduced, and for each the Field-Marshal had a 
word. He asked me to what unit I belonged, 
and on my replying, " The 9th Mule Corps ", he 
said there had been no such Corps in his day, and 
asked General Watkis several questions as to our 
work. The General was good enough to say that 
the Corps was daily performing valuable services. 
Lord Roberts, with a word of commendation, 
passed along the line. As he stepped into the car, 
Sir James Wilcocks called for " Three cheers for 
Field-Marshal Lord Roberts." I feel sure that 
the volume and enthusiasm of those cheers must 
have given him real pleasure; for every man 
cheered as if he meant it, and — what is more — 
every man did mean it. Lord Roberts stood at 
the salute till the cheers died away; then stepped 
into his car and drove off. 

The next day he died of pneumonia at General 
Headquarters. One could scarcely believe it : he 
had looked so fit and well, and walked and spoken 
almost like a young man. The keenest sorrow 
was felt by all ranks. It was almost a personal 



78 ON TWO FRONTS 

bereavement; But constantly one heard the remark, 
"What a splendid death! it was just what he 
would have wished. 55 From my earliest boyhood 
Lord Roberts has been my chief hero. It is to me 
a matter of the greatest pride that, at that last 
parade, I should have had the honour of being 
presented and of shaking his hand. 



CHAPTER VII 

ATTACHED TO THE ARMY SERVICE CORPS 

For the greater part of the month of November 
I was attached to Company No. 3 of the 
Divisional Train, which served the Jullundur 
Brigade, and performed the duties of Transport 
Officer of the Company in addition to my own. 
The strength of the Company was 88 men and 
62 horses. It already had four officers,- whereas 
my own command, in which I was unassisted by 
any British officer, contained 500 men and 768 
mules : this shows the extraordinary difference 
between the organisation of the Army Service 
Corps and the Indian Supply and Transport Corps. 
Orders were that the Train must be kept up to 
full strength ; so when one officer became a casualty 
I was sent to replace him, pending the arrival of 
someone from home. 

A few words describing the working arrange- 
ments of the A.S.C. at the front may help to make 
this chapter clearer. 

From the base, supplies are sent to railhead, 
which is established at the most suitable railway- 
station near to the front. Thence they are taken 

79 



80 ON TWO FRONTS 

by the Supply Column — consisting of motor- 
lorries escorted by motor-bicycles — to the refilling 
point. The refilling point is changed from time 
to time according to the position of the troops. 
It is usually out of shell range, clear of any main 
road, and may be anything from two to five miles 
behind the firing-line. At the refilling point, 
which is for the whole Division, the Supply Officer 
of each Brigade and of Divisional Troops takes up 
his position; and supplies of all sorts — rations, 
ordnance, engineering stores and presents — are 
dumped there by the Supply Column. The lorries 
then move away and horse-transport takes their 
place. Each unit has its allotment of supply 
wagons, which are kept in the A.S.C. Company 
lines, and are taken by the A.S.C. Transport 
Officer to the refilling point. There they are 
loaded by fatigue parties under the orders of the 
Supply Officer. Then, if the road is considered 
safe, the wagons move off in convoys to the regi- 
mental dumping-ground. When the regiments 
are in the trenches, these are well behind the line; 
when in billets, the wagons go to regimental head- 
quarters. If the roads to the front can be seen 
by the enemy — as is often the case — the wagons 
return to their lines and are taken up after dark. 

The selection of a good refilling point is one of 
the most important duties of the O.C. Train. It 
is not easy to avoid interfering with traffic, and the 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 81 

side roads in France are narrow and very bad. 
Taubes are rather fond of paying unwelcome 
attentions; but in the Lahore Division we were 
fortunate in that respect; though many refilling 
points were " strafed " from the air, ours escaped 
during my sojourn with the A.S.C. 

It is a mistake to suppose — as so many people 
do— that the lot of the A.S.C. at the front is always 
safe and comfortable. It is neither, though of 
course infinitely more so than that of dwellers in 
trenches. There is always a tendency to imagine 
that the life of those whose work lies further 
behind than one's own is a bed of roses. But 
every job has its unpleasant side. 

The change to the A.S.C. did not, after all, make 
a great deal of difference to me because Captain 
Bond who commanded the Company, and whom 
I had known for years, was most reasonable and 
allowed me, as far as possible, to continue my own 
work. It did, however, involve my leaving our 
little mess and going to live with the Company, 
which was billeted at Les Manoirs, some little 
distance from Estaires. The change of billets was 
distinctly for the worse. The villa had been so 
very comfortable, and Madame was an excellent 
cook. At Les Manoirs I found the four officers 
of the Company and the interpreter all sleeping 
on the floor in one room, in which they also had 
their meals. The householders were unfriendly 



82 ON TWO FRONTS 

and had refused to put themselves out, and Bond, 
always kind-hearted, had not insisted on better 
quarters. The first night I occupied the space 
under the table; but the next day I found an empty 
room in a neighbouring cottage, where a blind old 
man made me welcome. Even the floor of a 
room shared with five other people is a great im- 
provement on a wet and muddy trench; but there 
is nothing to be gained by being more uncomfort- 
able than one need be : one never knows when it 
may be necessary to sleep in a ditch. 

My duties with the Company consisted in taking 
the supply wagons to the refilling point in the 
morning, and up to the point behind the trenches 
where supplies were transferred to mule-carts at 
night. These duties were taken turn and turn 
about by Bond, Woodhouse (the other Transport 
Officer) and myself. The other officers of the 
Company were Captain Langrishe, Requisitioning 
Officer, and Lieutenant Carrigan, Supply Officer. 
The latter had the hardest and most responsible job. 

The heavy draught horses were much less at- 
tractive than my own little mules, and gave far 
more trouble. True, they did not kick, but they 
jibbed as no mule ever jibbed, and some could 
neither be persuaded nor compelled to work. I 
used sometimes to wish for a few of the spiked 
iron rods which the mahout in India digs into his 
elephant's head to urge it to greater efforts! 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 83 

Some of the men of the Company were queer 
specimens. Murphy, the Sergeant-Major, had 
risen to his exalted position because it was found 
that he was able to handle the men. In old days 
I doubt whether he would ever have reached cor- 
poral's rank; but he did very well. Then there 
was a sergeant who must be nameless because he 
has committed a military crime! An old regular 
gunner, he had been invalided out of the service 
as permanently unfit. On the outbreak of war he 
tried to join, but was rejected by Board after 
Board after learning his medical history, so he 
changed his name and tried the A.S.C, omitting 
to mention that he had served before. This time 
he sailed through the Board with ease, and, after 
all, as he confided to me, " I may have done wrong, 
sir, in a manner of speaking, but no one's a penny 
the worse off; and as you can see for yourself, sir, 
I'm as fit as any man in the Company." And he 
was, too, and a rattling good N.C.O. into the 
bargain. 

Another character was " Kitch ", otherwise 
Private Jennings. He owed his nickname to a 
distinct resemblance to the famous Field-Marshal, 
and on this account he seemed to receive deference 
from the Company. Jennings was a fine chap, big 
and handsome. He had been a carter in peace- 
time, and was very fond of his horses. When a 
wagon got stuck in the mud, it was always 



84 ON TWO FRONTS 

" Kitch " who was summoned to bring his pair 
and pull it out. 

Then there was Coombs, Woodhouse's servant 
— a "nut," who was always turned out to perfec- 
tion, with his hair brushed as if for his wedding. 
He was always happy and smiling, and thought 
a soldier's life (when you happen to have the 
good fortune to be an officer's servant) a most 
enviable one. I think he had been connected with 
a racing-stable in civil life : he well might have 
been, for he was a nice weight for a jockey. 
Coombs had a tip for every race that was coming 
on : Bond and Woodhouse lost quite a lot of 
money following them. He also took the keenest 
interest in League football and used to discuss it 
at length with his great pal, Bond's servant. The 
two of them had a passion for "Woodbines": 
the market rate of exchange in the Company was 
five " Abdullas " for one " Woodbine ". There's 
no accounting for tastes. 

During November the weather was very bad, 
and night work distinctly unpleasant. It usually 
poured with rain, and it was always very dark, no 
lights being allowed because the enemy were quite 
fond enough of shelling the roads without being 
given a light to aim at. The first time I went, a 
Black Maria pitched in front of the convoy as it 
reached its destination. The sudden terrific explo- 
sion in the inky darkness was somewhat alarming; 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 85 

but no one was hurt. Woodhouse always seemed 
to get the worst of the luck. Whenever it was 
his turn to go, it poured, and the convoy usually 
came under fire. My convoys very seldom did so. 

The refilling point was rather amusing, for there 
one met one's friends and exchanged lies. There 
was always the excitement, too, of seeing what had 
turned up from home in the shape of presents : 
the number and variety of these were quite extra- 
ordinary. Every clay large bundles of all sorts 
of comforts were distributed. If a man had a 
fancy for wearing four Balaclava helmets, a dozen 
scarves, and two or three cardigan waistcoats, and 
for smoking cigarettes at the rate of a hundred a 
day, he could do so. Parcels from quantities of 
different funds reached us, in addition to our own 
private parcels. 

A letter of thanks to be sent to the donors of 
presents to the men of the Mule Corps, composed 
by Ressaidar Ghulam Mahomed and translated by 
Mangat Rai, is worthy of reproduction — 

" We have great pleasure in expressing our 
gratitude to the gentry at home who have been 
taking much interest in sending presents with kind 
heartiness for the brave veterans at the front who 
are sacrificing their lives for their benevolent 
Emperor or are ready to do so. We accept all such 
presents very gladly, which we will not forget 
during the rest of our life. We pray that God 



86 ON TWO FRONTS 

bless and reward those gentlemen who have been 
showing such favour to us. With our solemn 
prayer that God may always keep Emperor safe 
from all harms and bestow him a victory over his 
enemies." 

Some of the gifts puzzled the Indians, notably 
the body-belts which were sent in large numbers. 
They were far too big to fit the slim and graceful 
waist of the native of India. The drivers eyed 
them curiously, wondering what they were for. 
Some wrapped them round their heads, converting 
them into a sort of puggaree; others, despairing 
of discovering their proper use, hung them round 
the necks of their mules. 

People at home were far too good to us. We 
missed these delicate attentions when we got to 
Gallipoli : there the difficulties of transport resulted 
in but few comforts reaching the troops. 

A box of Testaments arrived from a lady in 
England for distribution to British Tommies, and 
one of them wrote in reply — 

" I have read St. John xiv., and in the 14th 
verse it says, c If ye shall ask anything in my name, 
I will do it. 5 If you would send me a pipe, I 
should be pleased." 

Another letter of thanks which created some 
amusement at home contained the following 
remark — 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 87 

" Truly I may say that in the day of battle He 
covered my head as with a shield. I was hit in 
the neck." 



At the refilling point there was issued a "ration" 
of newspapers. One read in the Times or Daily 
Mail what had been done the day before. " A 
quiet day", or "There is nothing to report", 
figured in the news on occasions when, in smaller 
wars, large headlines would have chronicled the 
doings of the Army. 

Soon after I joined the Train, the Brigade 
moved into a different set of trenches, and head- 
quarters were transferred to Lacouture, east of the 
Lys Canal. Our Company, on an abominable day 
of sleet, rain and wind, marched to the same vil- 
lage. It was here that the G.O.C. of the Third 
Division, General Hubert Hamilton, was killed 
early in the war : his grave is in the churchyard. 

We were only a couple of days in Lacouture, as 
Colonel Cobbe considered the village unsafe for 
transport; so off we went to Vieille Chapelle, a 
little further back, where we had good accom- 
modation in a brewery for officers and men, and 
adequate stabling for the horses. A hard frost set 
in, which added much to the difficulties under 
which the horse-transport laboured, for no frost- 
shoes could be obtained and the great clumsy 
horses slithered about, fell down, and stayed there. 



88 ON TWO FRONTS 

The journey from the refilling point took hours, 
so the refilling point was transferred to Vieille 
Chapelle itself. 

A night or two after settling down in the 
brewery, when I was comfortably asleep, Carrigan 
walked into my room and woke me up, saying, 
" You'd better get up; they are shelling the bally 
house." I went to Bond's room. A council of 
war was assembled, discussing whether we should 
move or sit tight and chance it. The shells were 
coming over about every two minutes and burst- 
ing fairly close. It was bitterly cold, and the 
roads were in such a slippery state that we could 
never have got the horses along. Bond decided 
the matter by saying, " Well, the rest of you can 
do what you like. I'm going back to bed." A 
few of the shells found the brewery garden, but 
none hit the house. 

At Vieille Chapelle we were well in advance of 
the positions of many of our field-guns : some of 
the " heavies " were a mile or more behind. It 
seemed very strange at first to be living in a house, 
and sleeping in a bed in pyjamas, in what would 
formerly have been considered the middle of a 
battle. So great a sense of security is given by 
the trench-system, held by troops in whom one has 
absolute confidence, that ordinary everyday life 
continues only a mile or two behind the line. 

In the town of Bethune, which was often shelled, 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 89 

all the shops were open and the inhabitants went 
about their business as though nothing exceptional 
was happening. There was a patisserie, much 
frequented by French and British officers, where 
tea, coffee, chocolate and delicious cakes were sold. 
There were three pretty waitresses, who were full 
of fun and very popular. Singer was a particular 
favourite of theirs. One day the back part of the 
shop was hit by a shell, but trade continued as 
usual. The proprietress must have done good 
business, which she certainly deserved, for the 
place was a haven to men from the trenches. Good 
luck to the patisserie in Bethune! Two barbers' 
shops, too, did a roaring trade. You could get 
your hair cut and a shampoo as well as anywhere 
in London. Bethune was a typical French pro- 
vincial town, and had the good fortune to be just 
the right side of the trenches. 

Our next billet after Vieille Chapelle was a 
horribly dirty farm at Paradis. All farms in 
Northern France are built round a courtyard : in 
the middle is a refuse-heap on to which is thrown 
all the garbage and filth. It seems an unhealthy 
practice, and the odours which pervaded most of 
the farms were abominable. 

From Paradis, the Jullundur Brigade A.S.C. 
Company moved to Vendin, and established head- 
quarters in a farm owned by an old man who told 
interesting stories of the Franco-Prussian War, in 



90 ON TWO FRONTS 

which he had fought. His only son was a prisoner 
in Germany, taken in the great retreat. Vendin 
is close to Bethune, within easy walking distance, 
so this was a popular billet. 

One morning, on arriving at the refilling point 
with my convoy, I was met by Colonel Thomason, 
who was then commanding the Train, with orders 
" to run away and lose myself." Further explana- 
tion revealed the fact that the King was arriving 
shortly, and would motor down the road on which 
our wagons were collected. The men were much 
excited and anxious to see His Majesty. Un- 
luckily that was impossible, for u losing our- 
selves " involved going too far away, — and, 
besides, the men could not leave their horses, so 
we had to be content with reading accounts in the 
home papers of the King's visit, and hearing of it 
from others more fortunate than ourselves. We 
often used to see the Prince of Wales driving his 
own car. 

Moillis, nick-named " the lion- tamer " because 
of his saucy boots, got ten days' leave and went 
off in the highest spirits to Paris. He wore his 
loongi) and on his return asked us to believe that 
he had been mistaken for an Indian, and had fre- 
quently been asked whether he was a Gurkha or 
a Sikh. He insisted that he had kept up the illu- 
sion by pretending that he could not speak French. 
The humour of this will scarcely appeal to any one 



ATTACHED TO THE A.S.C. 



9 1 



who has not seen Moillis : a more typical French- 
man never breathed. He brought back with him 
many luxuries, of which a case of whisky and a 
few copies of La Vie Parisienne were the most 
popular. 

The Lahore Division was now taking turn and 
turn about in the trenches with the Meerut 
Division, and had moved to what was known as 
the Festubert line. These trenches were much dis- 
liked, as they were the worst in that part. 

On the night of November 24 there was severe 
fighting again, in which both Divisions took part. 
The 34th Pioneers had a very bad time. Major 
Kelly, commanding, a keen and able soldier, was 
killed; also Captain Mackain and Captain Masters, 
the adjutant. The latter was found with his 
sword in one hand and revolver in the other, and 
a dead German stretched across his feet : so he 
died righting, like the fine fellow we knew him to 
be. Captain Wilson was missing : survivors said 
he was killed, but a letter was received from him 
two months later saying that he had been severely 
wounded in the arm and taken prisoner. Only a 
few days before I had been drinking coffee with 
him just behind his trench, and he had showed me 
one bullet-hole through his ammunition-pouch and 
another through his puttee. The 34th had now 
only Lieutenants Paterson and Hickman left of 
their original complement of officers, and 216 men. 



92 ON TWO FRONTS 

Many other regiments were in much the same 
state, but it was not for another month that the 
Division got a real rest behind the line. Whilst 
in billets, they were always liable to be called up 
to reinforce the Meerut Division, and vice versa. 
Leave opened at the beginning of December — 
a pleasing surprise, for, somehow, the idea of leave 
while on active service had never occurred to one. 
Rennison got away for ten days, and I was allowed 
to return to Mule Transport Headquarters, to take 
over command in his absence. I was sorry to 
leave Bond and Woodhouse and their cheery mess 
— sorry, too, to leave the British Tommy. It had 
been like old times commanding Tommies again. 
But I was glad to get back to my legitimate work 
and to rejoin my own men. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SIRHJND BRIGADE REJOINS THE DIVISION 

I rejoined Headquarters Mule Transport at an 
abominable farm at La Tombe Willot, and at once 
began to search for better quarters. I found a 
nice, clean farmhouse near the mule-lines,, and was 
just settling down when in walked a very young 
officer in Indian uniform, who introduced himself 
as Lieutenant Minchin of the 125th (Napier's) 
Rifles, saying that he had been sent on ahead to 
arrange billets for his regiment. So here was the 
Sirhind Brigade at last. It will be remembered 
that it had remained in Egypt to guard the Canal. 
It comprised the 1st Battalion Highland Light 
Infantry, the 1st and 4th Gurkha Rifles and the 
125th (Napier's) Rifles. 

Minchin showed me his orders, which allotted 
to the Brigade an area including the billets which 
Headquarters Transport now occupied, as well as 
the farm I had just found, so we packed up and 
moved to Long Cornet, leaving the coast clear for 
the Sirhind Brigade. 

o 

Long Cornet is a tiny village, so small that it 
had apparently been overlooked as a billeting area; 

93 



94 ON TWO FRONTS 

but there was just room for us. At the house 
which Moillis had selected for headquarters was 
a very truculent lady. On being asked for a room 
for two officers, she announced that her house was 
scarcely big enough for her own family, and that 
she was not going to find accommodation for any- 
one. I insisted on inspecting the house, and, 
having done so, chalked upon the door of the 
selected room the mystic words " 20 Indians. 55 
This had the desired effect. Madame had for- 
gotten that she had such a room; of course it was 
exactly the thing for the two officers, and she placed 
it gladly at our disposal. 

The arrival of the Sirhind Brigade was very 
welcome. I looked forward to seeing the balance 
of the 9th Mule Corps, and having the unit com- 
plete once more. It was a grievous disappoint- 
ment to find that men and mules had been taken 
away from the Brigade at Marseilles, and replaced 
by men and animals belonging to two other X^orps. 
The regimental Transport Officers had protested 
vigorously, but to no purpose. Instead of finding 
my own men, I found a lot of drivers who, away 
from their own N.C.O.s, were like lost sheep. 
The mules were unshod; the draught mules clipped 
and in poor condition. Conductor Nagle was 
placed in charge of the transport of this Brigade, 
with orders to set about licking it into shape as 
quickly as possible. 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 95 

The 100 men of the 9th Mule Corps, withdrawn 
from the Sirhind Brigade, remained at Marseilles 
until April, although every time reinforcements 
were wanted to replace casualties I begged and 
prayed for my own men to be sent. Men of any 
other Corps were despatched in preference. Con- 
sequently, what had started as the 9th Mule 
Corps, with a few of the 38 th attached, was 
a composite unit made up of men belonging to 
twenty-three different mule corps when we left 
the front. 

I took the first opportunity of looking up the 
1 st Gurkhas. Dharmsala, 6000 feet up in the 
Outer Himalayas, is their station in peace-time, 
and there I had spent two very happy years, largely 
owing to the invariable kindness and hospitality 
of the regiment. Almost every officer was a per- 
sonal friend, and I knew many of the men. They 
were all heartily glad to have reached the front 
after a dull time in Egypt. Captain Money and 
Lieutenant Rundall took me to their billet to lunch, 
where we were waited on by Rifleman Churru- 
moni who had been my orderly in Dharmsala. 
Henry Money, delighted at having been appointed 
bombing officer, recounted how he and his men 
had been receiving instruction in the novel art. 
Rundall, who was Transport Officer of the bat- 
talion, was lavish in his praise of the 9th Mule 
Corps men who had been with them in Egypt, 



96 ON TWO FRONTS 

and spoke feelingly of his annoyance at their 
withdrawal. 

Churrumoni, the orderly, was a typical Gurkha 
— all smiles and sporting instinct. Once when on 
tour in the Kangra district in Dharmsala days, I 
came upon a couple of pea-fowl in a field. Churru- 
moni was behind with my gun, so I got off my 
horse and waited for him. I waited and waited 
until it was nearly dark, but he never came, so 
eventually I had to go on. Very shortly after my 
arrival at camp, in stalked Churrumoni with the 
gun and — two pea-fowl, one over each shoulder. 
He must have watched me while I waited, pre- 
ferring to have the shots himself. 

On another occasion Churrumoni said he wanted 
to shoot doves for his dinner, and asked me for 
some cartridges. Being rather short of them, I 
gave him only two. He was away for ages, but 
returned at last with six doves. He had enfiladed 
them three at a time! Churrumoni was the only 
person I have ever seen who continued to smile 
when suffering from jaundice. Gurkhas are great 
little men, and he was one of the best of them. 

Whilst the Division was in the Festubert- 
Givenchy trenches, the mule-drivers came in for 
their share of bad times, and a good many casual- 
ties occurred. There was a lot of shelling behind 
the lines, and the roads along which the transport 
took up rations at night were swept by stray 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 97 

bullets. The drivers with units had in many cases 
to camp in the open, and do the best they could 
with tarpaulins and straw to make some sort of 
a living-place under their carts : this entailed great 
suffering in wet and frosty weather. But always 
I received enthusiastic reports of their behaviour 
and of their absolute contempt of fire. Kot Duffa- 
dar Fatteh Khan and six drivers were recommended 
for special reward. On one occasion, when their 
mules carrying ammunition should have been met 
by a regimental party at a point behind the 
trenches, the party did not put in an appearance. 
Fatteh Khan and his men without a moment's 
hesitation unloaded the mules and took up the 
boxes themselves across the open under heavy fire. 
The position of the Division, which was now on 
the extreme right of the British line, separated 
from the French only by the La Bassee Canal, 
necessitated the use of the road along the canal- 
bank for transport v/ork. It was very narrow and 
riddled with shell-holes, and several accidents 
occurred. The bursting of a shell would some- 
times frighten the mules and cause them to bolt. 
In this way, at various times, three carts over- 
turned into the canal : in each case the driver was 
rescued, but the mules and carts went to the 
bottom. 1 A month or so later a barge stranded 

1 The picture on the cover, drawn by Mr. Lionel Edwardes, 
illustrates one of these incidents. 



98 ON TWO FRONTS 

in the canal : there being no obvious reason for 
this, the French authorities dragged the canal and 
brought forth three A.T. carts and six mules, which 
had — according to the official report — been dead 
some considerable, time, " judging by their appear- 
ance and scent." The French requested an in- 
quiry, pointing out that their Government had had 
to pay some thousands of francs in compensation 
to the barge-owner; but the matter blew over, and 
the amount was fortunately not deducted from 
our pay ! 

Being now in immediate contact with the 
French, we had the opportunity of seeing some- 
thing of our Allies' work. Though both the 
Tommy and the poilu are fine soldiers, there is a 
great contrast between them. The Frenchman has 
none of the smartness of the English soldier — at 
least, the French infantryman has not — but 
slouches along, under the heavy burden of his kit, 
looking almost slovenly; but when it comes to 
fighting he is all there. French infantry has 
always been famous for its dash and elan in the 
attack : it has now shown the world that it is not 
lacking in dogged tenacity in the defence as well. 
French cavalry are very smart and well turned out. 
So far they have had but little chance of showing 
their value, but when their opportunity comes 
they will not be found wanting. Their artillery — 
especially the famous '75 batteries — is second to 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 99 

none in the world. More than once I had the 
opportunity of seeing the 'j^s in action, and of 
talking to their officers. Very businesslike and 
smart is the work of the gunners. One feels that 
they know their job, and the pride they take in 
their beloved guns is very obvious. My admira- 
tion for the '75 was enhanced in Gallipoli, when 
I saw, as it were, the other side of the shield. For 
at Anzac the Turks had two against us, captured 
in Serbia. Those guns were among the most 
destructive that we had to face, and were the most 
hated because one got no notice of the coming of 
the shell. The report of the firing and the crash 
of the bursting shell were almost simultaneous. 
There was never time to dive for cover. 

The main road from Bethune to La Bassee had 
been churned up by big shells, and looked as 
though it had been fiercely fought over. The 
undulating nature of the country here enabled a 
general idea of the situation to be obtained from 
certain points of vantage. The ridge of Givenchy 
and the high ground facing Vermelles — the former 
occupied by us and the latter by the French — were 
important tactical positions. 

It was in the battle for the Givenchy ridge that 
the Indian Corps came in for some of the heaviest 
fighting from the 18 th to the 22nd December. 
Backwards and forwards swung the pendulum; 
ground was lost, regained and lost again. The 



ioo ON TWO FRONTS 

59th Rifles, in a desperate and successful charge, 
lost four of their best officers. Many battalions 
distinguished themselves, the Manchesters and 
Highland Light Infantry particularly. On the 
20th reinforcements poured into Bethune, and 
were pushed up rapidly into the firing-line. Bat- 
talions of the Camerons, Black Watch and South 
Wales Borderers arrived by motor-bus; a Guards 
Brigade marched in. The arrival of an Indian 
Cavalry Brigade, which included one British regi- 
ment, the 17th Lancers, caused a stir in the town. 
They left their horses and hurried to the trenches. 
Guns thundered all along the line. For a time the 
position was critical, but the reinforcements turned 
the scale, and on the 23rd it was found possible to 
relieve the Lahore Division. It was time. Long 
weeks in the trenches in appalling weather, followed 
by this ferocious fighting, had played the deuce 
with them. Hardly a battalion had half its 
numbers left, and the officer casualties were heavier 
still. A long rest to recoup was essential, and 
now that more troops were arriving from England 
the Division could be spared. 

The newly-arrived Sirhind Brigade had suffered 
most. The H.L.I, and both Gurkha battalions 
were in the thick of the fighting. The 1st Gurkhas 
lost four British officers killed and a number of 
men — amongst them both my hosts of the 
luncheon-party, and Churramoni too. Henry 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 101 

Money had been killed whilst defending his trench 
with bombs against an overwhelming attack, shot 
through the head by a bullet fired at close quarters. 
The others said he was the life and soul of the 
regiment in the trenches, and was enjoying himself 
like a child. Rundall, following his Company 
Commander in an attack on the enemy trenches, 
had been shot and killed outright. Not only a 
gallant soldier, he was a man of exceptional talents 
■ — an accomplished musician, a clever artist, and 
a writer of the greatest promise. A book from his 
pen, illustrated by himself, was published after his 
death and met with instant success. His only 
brother, in the 4th Gurkhas, fell in the same battle. 

Only a fortnight since the luncheon-party! It 
was hard to realise that those three strong, healthy 
men were dead. Well, it is a glorious death, and 
such is war. 

The 125th Rifles got off more lightly, but my 
young friend Minchin, with his platoon, was 
missing. I fear that he was killed. It was a 
sadly depleted Brigade which marched back to 
billets some ten or fifteen miles in rear, where 
they were to take a spell of ease. 

It seemed like the irony of fate that, during 
those momentous days, Headquarters Transport 
should have been located in the best and most 
comfortable billets that we had during our whole 
stay in France. These were in Bethune. The 



102 ON TWO FRONTS 

men occupied a large disused brewery. All the 
Britishers had comfortable quarters in the town, 
and the officers were in the house of Major Boni- 
face of the French Army, in the Rue d'Aire. The 
servants had been given instructions that, should 
any British officers apply to be billeted there, they 
were to be treated as the housekeeper, who had 
been with the family for years, would wish Major 
Boniface to be treated. She carried out her orders 
to the letter, and we returned at night from the 
sordidness of the battle-field to comfort undreamed 
of on active service. One felt ashamed to be in 
such a house when there was so much suffering 
close by. Each of us had a separate bedroom, 
with a beautiful bed, clean sheets and pillows. 
Everything was just as though we had been at 
home. Nothing that the housekeeper and the two 
maids could do for us was too much trouble. It 
was the only house I struck in France which owned 
the luxury of a bath-room. 

The day we marched with the Division to the 
rear it was snowing hard, and it was a somewhat 
bedraggled column that wended its way to the west. 

Divisional Headquarters were now established 
at Lozinghem, in a splendid chateau: the grounds 
must have been delightful in summer-time. The 
three Brigades and Divisional Troops were in 
villages within a four-mile radius. It was a 
coal-mining district, and huge slag-heaps formed 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 103 

the chief feature of the landscape. The village 
in which our billets lay was called Burbure, and 
here we spent Christmas Day which was fine and 
frosty — one of the nicest days we had had for 
some time. 

In the morning Rennison and I paid a visit to 
the refilling point to exchange the season's greet- 
ings with our friends. There was a larger crop 
of presents than ever. Sergeant Grainge, the 
quartermaster, required extra carts to carry them 
away. Every man had a Christmas card from the 
King and Queen, with photographs of their 
Majesties. Princess Mary's present of an artistic 
box, containing a pipe, tobacco and a packet of 
cigarettes, was distributed to all ranks. From 
Queen Mary also each man received a pair of socks. 
All these were highly appreciated, and many 
announced that of course they would not wear the 
socks : they would be treasured for all time. After 
the distribution on parade of the royal presents, 
Ressaidar Amir Khan called for three cheers for 
the King and Queen, and three more for the Bad- 
shahzadi (the Princess). These were given with 
great enthusiasm. 

The Lahore Division, being out of the trenches, 
saw nothing of the extraordinary cessation of hos- 
tilities and exchange of compliments and presents 
with the enemy which distinguished the first 
Christmas of the war. 



104 ON TWO FRONTS 

A turkey purchased in Bethune, and a plum- 
pudding from England made our Christmas dinner 
reminiscent of home. In the afternoon I rode over 
to Auchel, where the remnants of the Sirhind 
Brigade were billeted, and had tea in the mess of 
the i st Gurkhas, from whom I heard many details 
of the fight. One could not but be struck by the 
wonderful cheerfulness of those who remained. 
The regiment had already lost six officers killed, 
but the survivors, nothing daunted, showed no 
signs of depression. Captain Kennedy, the adju- 
tant, had killed two Germans with his revolver 
and was justly proud of the feat. All were unani- 
mous in praise of Henry Money's conduct, and in 
regret at the loss the regiment had sustained by his 
death. 

Rennison had returned from leave just when 
we moved to Bethune. It was now my turn. I 
had been granted leave and had it cancelled two or 
three times over; but on December 29 leave 
opened again. Returning one evening from a 
loner round of visits to the men, I found that mine 
had been sanctioned. 

Bond was good enough to lend me a car as far 
as Hazebrouck. A regular gale was blowing, and 
a few miles from Hazebrouck a tree had fallen 
right across the road. Already two or three cars 
were held up; but somebody had produced a 
couple of axes, and we all took turns to hack at the 



SIRHIND BRIGADE REJOINS 105 

tree. It was over an hour before the road was 
clear. Then it was a race to catch the train, but 
we just succeeded in doing so. At Calais the wind 
was so strong that one could hardly keep one's 
feet; but the Channel steamer did not leave till 
next morning, by which time the force of the gale 
had somewhat decreased. 

I had six clear days in England, and they simply 
flew. A splendid idea, this short leave. The 
prospect of it buoys men up through bad times, 
and helps those at home to live through the strain 
and anxiety which is their lot. 



CHAPTER IX 

"nothing to report on the western front" 

During the whole of January there was prac- 
tically nothing doing so far as the Lahore Division 
was concerned. Two Brigades went into the 
trenches for four days each, but that was all. The 
weather was too desperately bad for fighting, and 
both sides were glad of a rest. All this time we 
remained at Burbure, merely carrying on with 
ordinary routine work. For recreation we had 
bridge — exchanging visits for the purpose with the 
officers of the Divisional Ammunition Column, 
who lived close by — bathing at Auchel, and an 
occasional ride to Bethune, ten miles off. Auchel 
boasted some first-rate baths, run in connection 
with the coal-mines, and heated by steam : Singer 
and I used to ride over there in the afternoon. 

Changes had taken place in the Division, and 
General Keary was in command. Colonel Strick- 
land, of the Manchesters, now commanded the 
Jullundur Brigade; and Colonel Walker, of the 
4th Gurkhas, had the Sirhind Brigade. Colonel 
Hodson had gone home sick, and Major Lukin 
combined the duties of A.Q.M.G. with those of 

D.A.A.G. 

106 




CLERK MANGAT RAI IN HIS DUG-OUT AT ANZAC. 



< NOTHING TO REPORT' 107 

There was some reorganisation of Brigades also. 
In place of the Ferozepore Brigade, a Reserve 
Brigade was formed of the battalions which had 
suffered most heavy casualties. The Connaught 
Rangers, having amalgamated with their own 2nd 
battalion, joined the Sirhind Brigade, and the 57th 
Rifles were transferred to the Jullundur Brigade. 

The only casualty which occurred in the Mule 
Corps during this period was one of the mules 
attached to the Connaught Rangers, which lost its 
life in a most unexpected manner. One dark night, 
slipping its shackle, it wandered from the lines. A 
sentry challenged, "Halt! Who goes there?" 
Receiving no reply, he repeated the challenge, with 
the same inevitable result. Mindful of his orders, 
he raised his rifle and fired at the noise. The 
sounds ceased. When day broke, the sentry saw 
before him the dead body of the mule. When 
arraigned at Orderly Room next morning for 
" making away with Government property ", or 
some such technical charge, his explanation was 
that he had mistaken the mule for a squadron of 
German cavalry. This occurred quite fifteen miles 
behind the trenches, but an Irish soldier is equal to 
any emergency. 

On January 27 heavy firing heralded the Kaiser's 
birthday. Orders were issued for " constant readi- 
ness ", but it was not till February 1 that a move 
was made. On the Givenchy front the Kaiser's 
birthday present took the form of about four 



108 ON TWO FRONTS 

hundred dead Germans — the result of five futile 
attacks on our line. 

I have a vivid recollection of another celebration 
of the Kaiser's birthday a year or two before the 
war, at Engelberg in Switzerland. The visitors at 
the hotel were about half British and half German. 
On January 27 the management provided a special 
dinner, and the German contingent made merry in 
honour of the occasion. The health of the Kaiser 
was proposed in a brilliant and eulogistic speech by 
a distinguished Englishman, and was drunk by all 
Britishers present with three " hochs." A German 
made a suitable reply, and all was bonhomie and 
good comradeship. 

After our long stay at Burbure, we parted with 
reluctance from our kind hostess, whose small boy 
Emile had become a great favourite in the mess. 
It was while we were at Burbure that Rennison's 
own son and heir was born, and Singer created 
much amusement by suggesting that the infant 
should be christened " Joffre Burbure". 

It was very noticeable how well the Indians got 
on with the French children. Half a dozen drivers 
squatting round, talking and playing with the vil- 
lage children, was quite a common sight. By this 
time a good many of them could speak some 
French. Rahin Baksh, my servant, had a great 
knack of picking up words and expressions, and his 
accent was perfect. I sent him back to India soon 
afterwards, having really no need for him, and 



< NOTHING TO REPORT' 109 

Ajaib Shah, the driver who had looked after Mahdi, 
became my orderly, while one Diwan Ali took his 
place as sais. 

Our next move was to a place called Robecq. 
On the way to look for billets there Mahdi made 
his first and only mistake. Cantering down the 
road alongside the Aire Canal, he put his foot in a 
shell-hole entirely concealed by slimy mud, and 
turned a complete somersault. But neither of us 
was damaged. 

Robecq was very full. The only billet we could 
get was a portion of a cottage, in which I slept on 
the floor in the kitchen. Rennison had a tiny 
room, through which the entire family had to pass 
on their way to bed. The landlady was kind, 
though dirty, and we were kept quite busy throw- 
ing the soup out of the window when she was not 
looking. 

Our greatest trouble was to find lines for the 
animals, for the whole country was under water. 
In the field which we eventually took, faute de 
mieux, the mules were up to their hocks in mud. 
It was in this billet that I received a thoroughly 
well-merited snub from one of that hard-worked 
body of men, the motor-cyclist orderlies. I was 
awakened about 2 a.m. and handed an official 
envelope. It contained the routine orders for the 
day. I was somewhat annoyed at being so un- 
necessarily aroused. 

" Well, sir," said the cyclist, " I can assure you 



no ON TWO FRONTS 

it's no pleasure to me to bring it to you. Pre- 
sumably some of my letters are important, and 
I have to deliver them all whenever I get the 
chance." 

As usual, it was a soaking night. I tried to 
atone for my lack of intelligence by giving the 
cyclist — who had been an Oxford undergraduate 
when war broke out — a good tot of rum. An 
appalling time these men must have had during 
that winter of incessant rain and snow. The state 
of the roads was indescribable, and the orderlies 
were liable to be sent out at any hour of the day or 
night. There had been a contingent of them on 
board the Castalia — mostly business men of good 
birth and education from Bombay. Many of them 
obtained commissions later on. 

During the month of February the Lahore 
Division held the Rue du Bois sector of trench line 
on the left of the Givenchy sector. Divisional 
Headquarters were at Locon. The three villages 
in which most of the i st line transport was quartered 
were Lacouture, Le Touret and Richebourg St. 
Vaast. All three came in for a good deal of atten- 
tion from enemy artillery — particularly the last. 
Instead of it being unusual to encounter a shell- 
storm on one's rounds, it now became the exception 
not to do so. But on the whole the transport was 
very lucky. Sergeant Levings, who had taken up 
his quarters in Richebourg, had a shell through the 
roof of his kitchen. He was in the direct line of 



'NOTHING TO REPORT' m 

the enemy's favourite zone of fire — namely, in a 
prolongation of the line from the Boche guns to the 
church — so I ordered him to move. A tombstone 
had been blown by a shell on to the church roof, 
where it remained embedded in a former shell-hole. 

So regular were the German gunners in their 
hours for shelling that — acting on the advice of 
officers quartered in Richebourg — I issued orders 
for all transport to leave the village at 1 1.45 daily, 
and to return at 2.15. In this way they usually 
escaped the daily " strafe ". 

The Signal Company selected for their mule- 
lines the drawing-room of one of the best houses 
in Richebourg. In the corner stood a grand piano. 
But there was not much left of the walls, and half 
the floor of the room above the drawing-room was 
gone. In this half room was a chest of drawers 
and a bed. It was not used as a billet, because it 
had no roof. The whole village had been very 
badly knocked about. A point which always struck 
me as peculiar was that, whenever the enemy artil- 
lery began to shell, people who knew the district 
could always tell exactly where it was safe and where 
unsafe to stand. There were two particularly bad 
corners between Richebourg and the trenches, 
known as Windy Corner and Chocolat Menier 
Corner, which must have been visible from some 
Hun observation post, for directly any traffic 
passed them they were invariably shelled. 

The transport of the Sirhind Brigade gave a lot 



ii2 ON TWO FRONTS 

of trouble, simply because the men had no N.C.O. 
whom they knew, and their bhaibands, or relations 
and friends, were not with them. The Indian 
driver not only hates being separated from his 
bhaibands; he hates being parted from his mules 
just as much. And frequently the mules showed 
their dislike of being parted from the men they 
knew. 

There was one mule which a Transport Officer 
asked us to replace because nobody could do any- 
thing with it. It was a regular budmash, and 
refused either to carry a pack or work in a cart. 
When it returned to headquarters, all our best men 
tried to break it to better ways. Amir Khan, a 
past master in horse and mule-breaking, tried all his 
tricks. But in vain. Captain Jelbart, A.V.C., 
attempted further experiments. The mule kicked 
and bit and reared : nothing could be done with 
him. Jelbart's last experiment was lashing the 
animal's head to a tree, and he said that if that failed 
he would recommend its destruction. On being 
released from the tree, the mule was worse than 
ever, and Jelbart said, "Well, he's hopeless. 
You'd better shoot him." Some reinforcements 
happened to arrive in camp just as we were going 
to do so, and one of the drivers, seeing the mule, 
called out that it was his own and must not be shot. 
The man had not seen the mule since leaving 
Amballa some six months previously. He took 
it over, and that very evening, harnessed into a cart 



'NOTHING TO REPORT' 113 

with another mule, it went quietly on duty. It 
never gave any trouble again. 

On February 21 the 2nd Division made an 
attack from the Givenchy trenches. Guns of all 
calibres, both French and English, were engaged, 
including a newly-arrived 9' 2" which was known 
as " Mother ". This was the heaviest bombard- 
ment we had seen up to that time, though it was 
nothing to what now takes place, thanks to the 
increase in our guns and munitions. Some enemy 
trenches were much damaged and evacuated by the 
Huns, but our men found them full of water and 
could not occupy them. 

Four days later, relieved by the Meerut Division, 
the Lahore Division went back to billets. We 
marched in a snowstorm again to Busnes, where we 
established ourselves near Divisional Headquarters. 
It was a long ride round the Brigades from there. 
I used to break my journey in Calonne, where Bond 
and Woodhouse, with No. 3 Company, were in 
clover. 

From Busnes I rode one day to St. Venant to 
visit an Indian clearing hospital. Some of our 
wounded drivers were there. They were splendidly 
looked after, and the hospital was run on model 
lines. Another day, Ressaidar Ghulam Mahomed 
accompanied me to Mametz, where some of our 
men were attached to the Indian Cavalry. We 
found there three kot duffadars and two naicks of 
the 9th Mule Corps, all from the contingent which 



ii4 ON TWO FRONTS 

had been left in Egypt. It was a pleasure to 
witness their joy at seeing their own CO. and 
adjutant. They told us that they had despaired 
of ever seeing the Corps again or any one belong- 
ing to it. I tried hard to get them sent back to 
their own men in Marseilles, but failed. 

The cavalry had been having a very dull time. 
An occasional trip to the front in motor-buses, for 
the purpose of digging reserve trenches, was the 
only relief they had from ordinary peace training. 
Here I found Captain Rendall, who was now 
Supply Officer of the Cavalry Divisional Train, and 
Captain Foster, of the ioth Lancers, who had been 
in the Somersets with me. We had an excellent 
lunch together in the Staff mess. 

After a few more quiet days at Busnes, there 
began to be signs of increased activity, and a 
" push " was talked of. But we heard nothing 
definite until about March 7, when the Division 
began to return to the trenches, and we marched 
to Calonne — another night march in pouring rain. 
Here we established ourselves in a large farm of 
the sealed pattern description, though a little 
cleaner than usual. The only objection to this 
billet was that it was too far from the firing-line. 
It meant a ride of some ten miles each way before 
our Work began. Divisional Headquarters moved 
to Lacouture, and remained there during the Battle 
of Neuve Chapelle. 



CHAPTER X 

THE BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE 

Many graphic descriptions of the battle have 
been published, none more so than Lord French's 
official despatch; and no attempt will be made in 
this chapter to rival them. As a matter of fact, the 
nature of my duties and the flatness of the country 
combined to render impossible any comprehensive 
view of the fighting. 

Terrific firing by the Allied artillery on the ioth 
heralded the commencement of the battle. Every 
gun for miles around seemed to be in action, hurl- 
ing shells of all sorts and sizes on to the enemy 
trenches at Neuve Chapelle. The first day the 
Huns' reply was feeble, but on the 1 1 th and follow- 
ing days his artillery supported the counter-attacks 
of the infantry with heavy fire, and directed a 
furious bombardment on the roads and villages 
behind our lines, rendering the bringing up of 
supports very difficult. 

The troops engaged were the Indian Corps on 
the right and the 4th Corps on the left, the objective 
of the former being the village of Neuve Chapelle 
and the Bois de Biez beyond, and that of the latter 
the village of Aubers and the Aubers ridge. The 
first assault, delivered by the Meerut Division, met 

115 



n6 ON TWO FRONTS 

with complete success; fighting their way through 
the village, they dashed on into the wood^ but the 
barbed wire in front of a Brigade of the 4th Corps 
had not been sufficiently demolished, and the 
Brigade was held up, a battalion of Cameronians 
losing most of its officers and a large proportion of 
its men. 

The Lahore Division was called up to reinforce 
their Meerut comrades, and suffered heavily from 
the " barrage" fire. The ferocity of the counter- 
attacks necessitated retirement from the wood, for 
the left of the Indian Corps was " in the air ", and 
a turning movement by the enemy had to be pre- 
vented. Many German prisoners were taken : 
their faces were yellow from lyddite, and they 
looked terribly scared. About 300 of them 
marched back escorted by only two men of the 
Black Watch. 

The Mule Transport found its way to some nasty 
places swept by shell-fire, and bore its share in the 
resulting casualties. Sergeants Levings and Staton 
were well to the fore accompanying any convoys 
detailed for specially unpleasant jobs, and the 
former distinguished himself by extricating the 
drivers and pack-mules of the 59th Rifles and 47th 
Sikhs from a place where he found them under a 
scathing fire, but standing loaded up with ammuni- 
tion, waiting for further orders to advance. Naick 
Mahomed Khan, who was in charge, had been 
posted there before the shelling began, with 



BATTLE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE 117 

orders to remain there till he was told to move; 
and remain he did in spite of everything. The 
roads leading to the trenches presented a horrible 
sight, strewn with dead and dying British and 
Indian soldiers, amongst whom the medical officers 
and stretcher-bearers were all the time at work. 

The billet of Headquarters Transport being so 
far behind the line, small advance depots had to be 
established from which to issue men and animals 
to replace casualties, which were, however, remark- 
ably slight considering the violence of the shelling. 
The 9th Mule Corps lost only fourteen men and 
sixty-three mules killed and wounded. One driver 
with the Signal Company had his head blown clean 
off whilst driving his cart. 

The maintenance of signalling communications 
during the battle was a matter of extreme difficulty, 
the signallers working under most trying con- 
ditions. Lieutenant Drayson, commanding the 
Headquarter section of the Lahore Divisional 
Signal Company, had his headquarters in a cellar 
in the village of Neuve Chapelle, which had liter- 
ally been razed to the ground. There seemed to 
be no house with a roof or outside wall intact; the 
tombstones in the churchyard had been uprooted 
from the ground and blown yards away, and corpses 
were everywhere. 

It had been hoped to use the cavalry, and the 
sight of our Divisional Regiment, the 1 5th Lancers, 
trotting forward to be ready to break through, was 



n8 ON TWO FRONTS 

a cheering one; for since the arrival of the Lahore 
Division at the front it had never been possible for 
cavalry to perform its legitimate work. But dis- 
appointment was in store. The difficulties proved 
greater than had been foreseen, and consolidation 
of the positions gained had to be taken in hand and 
trench-warfare resumed. The losses of the Indian 
Corps were heavy, especially those of the Garhwal 
Brigade which distinguished itself conspicuously, 
the 39 th Garhwals in particular receiving high com- 
mendation. But the German losses were estimated 
to be far larger than ours, and the advance had 
the effect, at all events, of strengthening the morale 
of our troops. The wounded all came back proud 
and happy from the fight. Men of the 47th Sikhs 
in a motor-ambulance talked lovingly of the splen- 
did gallantry of their British officers, and told how 
they' went on regardless of the murderous fire. 
One sepoy told how he had seen poor Mango 
Browne charging at the head of his men with his 
broken arm dangling in its sleeve. When a 
comrade told him that this officer had afterwards 
been killed, the sepoy burst into tears. 

It was not till later that we knew how great a dis- 
appointment the results of the battle had really 
been; but, notwithstanding this, it was in some 
measure a success, for it showed that long lines of 
trenches could be taken, and it proved conclusively 
for all time the splendid fighting qualities of Indian 
troops. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE SCENE CHANGES 

Only a few days after the Battle of Neuve 
Chapelle orders arrived for me " to proceed forth- 
with to Marseilles in connection with the concentra- 
tion there of A.T. carts." This was rather a shock, 
and there was much speculation as to what it meant. 
There were rumours of an expedition to the Dar- 
danelles, so it seemed possible that that was to be 
our destination. 

I was not anxious to leave France. After years 
abroad, the prospect of a summer in the west was 
attractive, and, moreover, the Western Front 
always seemed to me to be much the most important 
sphere of operations. The Dardanelles would be 
a side-show. It was with some reluctance, there- 
fore, that I made my preparations to depart. 

Before leaving I made an expedition to the new 
trenches opposite the Bois de Biez. Lieutenant 
Betham, of the 15th Sikhs, allowed me to accom- 
pany him on his usual evening journey. After 
passing the barricade outside the cottage formerly 
occupied by Jullundur Brigade Headquarters, a 

mile or so from Richebourg St. Vaast, the ground 

119 



120 ON TWO FRONTS 

was new to me. Along a track marked by whitened 
bricks, we passed over an open plain, pitted with 
shell-holes like the face of a person with small-pox. 
As we moved forward, heavy artillery fire was being 
directed by the enemy on the ruins of Richebourg 
l'Avoue; but all was quiet when we arrived, and 
the communication trenches, which, according to 
Betham, " frequently got it in the neck", were as 
safe as possible that evening. 

We reached what had been the German third line, 
converted to face the other way : behind were 
enemy barbed wire entanglements torn up by our 
shell-fire, and in front was the wire recently put up 
by our men. There were many well-constructed 
dug-outs, in one of which I found the mess of the 
15th Sikhs. Major Garden and Lieutenant Smyth 
were, I think, the only two officers there who had 
come over with the regiment from India. Major 
Garden died of wounds at Boulogne a few months 
later, having been through everything from the 
beginning with his regiment. Smyth's name is 
well known. He gained the V.C. at the second 
Battle of Ypres for one of the most magnificent acts 
of heroism in the whole war. Starting with half 
a dozen men, he brought up bombs across an open 
space swept by a withering fire. Only Smyth and 
one man reached the regiment with the urgently 
needed box of bombs. I remember him as I saw 
him that evening, in a Tommy's long great-coat, 



THE SCENE CHANGES 121 

with his head in a Balaclava helmet, looking very- 
youthful, his face wreathed in smiles as usual. 
Smyth was the only officer of the Lahore Division 
to win the V.C. in France : there could not have 
been a more popular award. 

Passing along the trenches, we reached the 1st 
Gurkha position. Here, too, were very few of the 
original officers. Major Hepenstal kindly showed 
me round and explained the situation. There had 
been heavy shelling during that afternoon, and he 
had seen two Sikhs blown clean out of their trench, 
but neither had been hurt. We passed some 
Gurkhas putting the finishing touches to a rough 
wooden cross on which was inscribed "To the 
memory of Captain G. S. Kennedy." Captain 
Kennedy, the adjutant, had been killed a day or 
two before : he was a splendid officer, beloved by 
the men, and a grievous loss to the regiment. 

The Roll of Honour of the 1 st Gurkhas has been 
a very long one. Few battalions can have lost a 
larger proportion of officers killed. Of those who 
arrived at the front only four survive, two of whom 
have been wounded. A proud record indeed. 

We came to a notice-board marked " Danger." 
It seemed odd in such surroundings, but I noticed 
that the ground at that point was stained with 
blood. There were frequent cries of " Khubrdar, 
sahib! " (Be careful, sir!), and we would stoop as 
we passed a bit of trench commanded by enemy 



122 ON TWO FRONTS 

snipers. The parapet was too high for Gurkhas : 
they had to stand on biscuit-boxes when on sentry 
duty, for periscopes were not at that time in general 
use. 

It was getting dark by the time I got back to 
Lacouture, where I stopped to see the Signal Com- 
pany and bid their officers good-bye. With Major 
Maxwell I found an old cricketing friend, Captain 
Townend, R.E., of the Meerut Divisional Signal 
Company. To him it was a last farewell. A very 
fine fellow was Townend : the way he died was an 
example of superlative bravery. Whilst super- 
intending a working-party, a high-explosive shell 
burst in their midst. Men hurried to the rescue, 
but Townend waved them aside, telling them to 
attend to the others first. When they picked him 
up it was found that both his legs had been blown 
off below the knee, and he remarked that it looked 
as though his footballing days were over. He died 
that night — a gallant sportsman if ever there was 
one. 

It was with real regret that I said good-bye to 
the Corps. Rennison, the two adjutants and the 
two interpreters came to see me off. It was not 
long before we met again, but that was the end of 
our service together, and it had been very friendly. 
A man who could not get on with Rennison would 
indeed be hard to please, for nothing ever put him 
out. His evenness of temper under all conditions 



THE SCENE CHANGES 123 

was astounding, and the men of the 2nd Mule 
Corps think there is no one like their sahib. 

I took with me my orderly, Ajaib Shah, and a 
friend of his, Karim Baksh. We reached Paris the 
following evening, having gone round by Bou- 
logne. After seeing the Indians settled down in 
the Red Cross rooms at the station, I accepted a 
lift in a motor-car from a kind Red Cross lady, and 
at the A.P.M.'s office I received the pleasing infor- 
mation that the Ritz Hotel provided free accom- 
modation for British officers from the front. This 
seemed just about good enough, so to the Ritz 
Hotel I went, and was there given a magnificent 
suite of apartments, the extreme luxury of which 
seemed greater by contrast with the farms of 
Flanders. 

That night the first Zeppelin raid on Paris took 
place. The hall-porter told me that all the visitors 
in night-attire had thronged the hall : the bolder 
spirits going out to see the Zeppelins, the more 
timid asking their way to the cellars. I never woke 
at all, but slept through the raid, as might be ex- 
pected of a man who finds himself in a luxurious 
bed for the first time for months. 

In the morning — a beautiful spring morning — 
I took a taxi and drove to the station, where I found 
my orderlies very full of the wonderful kindness 
they had received. They had been given every- 
thing they could desire to eat and drink : comfort- 



i2 4 ON TWO FRONTS 

able beds had been provided; and, after breakfast, 
a lady of surpassing beauty had talked to them and 
shaken hands with them. They did not understand 
what she said, but that did not matter. The lady 
was the Hon. Mrs. Maurice Brett, wife of the 
A.P.M. and a Red Cross worker, better known as 
Miss Zena Dare. 

I took the two men for a drive round Paris — 
past the shops, through the Place de la Concorde, 
up the Champs Elysees and into the Bois. To 
Ajaib Shah and Karim Baksh it was like a trip to 
fairyland, and their joy was infectious. Returning 
to the Ritz, I took them to my rooms that they 
might see what a first-class European hotel is like. 
They were especially impressed with the glass 
revolving doors and the lift, never having seen such 
things before, and Ajaib Shah asked timidly if I 
would mind waiting while they went up and down 
the lift again. It was just like showing a couple 
of children round. 

My orders were to proceed " forthwith " to 
Marseilles. Colonel Hennessy had agreed to my 
stopping twenty-four hours in Paris, but even that 
short delay nearly had disastrous results. One 
never knows. Once before I had received orders 
to proceed "forthwith" to take over a Staff billet 
in India. I went by the first possible train, only 
to be asked on arrival why on earth I hadn't taken 
ten days' leave, as the job wouldn't be vacant 
sooner. 



THE SCENE CHANGES 125 

From Paris to Marseilles I travelled with a cheery 
party of officers invalided from the front, on their 
way to spend a few weeks at Nice. One was a boy 
named Thackeray, whose personality attracted me 
greatly : he was so bubbling over with joie de vivre. 
He had been through the retreat from Mons, and 
afterwards at Ypres, but he had never been touched. 
He thought he bore a charmed life. But his luck 
failed him, for I saw his name in a casualty-list not 
long after, and read how he had fallen in an attack 
at the head of his platoon. 

At Marseilles I reported myself to the R.T.O., 
who turned out to be Colonel Pope, late General 
Manager of the Oudh & Rohilkand Railway, whom 
I had known at Lucknow, where he commanded 
the Railway Volunteers. Colonel Pope passed me 
on to Colonel Marriot, of my own Corps, whom I 
found in the new mule-lines near the docks. 

After being sworn to secrecy, I was told that our 
guess was correct : the Dardanelles was to be our 
destination. It had been decided to raise four 
Mule Cart Corps under an entirely new organisa- 
tion — each Corps to have ten troops, each troop 
consisting of 108 mules and 50 carts, with 60 
drivers. With artificers, etc., this brought the 
command to 1080 mules and some 650 men. The 
" superior establishment " was to be on the old 
scale, so the disproportion of officers to men was 
greater than ever. Pack-mules were to remain in 



126 ON TWO FRONTS 

France. I was to command No. i Corps, which, 
together with a portion of No. 2, had already been 
raised from the transport that had been working at 
Marseilles throughout the winter. This had been 
most efficiently done by Captain Pulleyn, S. & T. 
Corps, and, thanks to him, I found my new Corps 
ready, fully equipped and with every detail com- 
plete. It contained three troops of the ist Mule 
Corps, two of the 9th, four of the 15th, and one 
of a miscellaneous collection. The ist, whose CO., 
Captain Hall, had been sent to the Cavalry Divi- 
sion, is one of the best Mule Corps in the Indian 
Army, and I was lucky to get them. Their 
adjutant, Ressaidar Hashmet Ali, had been 
appointed adjutant of No. 1 Cart Corps — another 
stroke of luck, for he was a very good officer 
indeed. 

The " superior establishment " consisted of Con- 
ductor Brown, 9th Mule Corps, who had been 
doing depot work all the winter; Conductor 
Appleby, transferred from the Supply Branch; and 
Sergeants Clarke (ist Mule Corps) and Smith 
(15th Mule Corps). Sergeant Clarke was to be 
Quartermaster- Sergeant, a position he had filled in 
the ist Mule Corps. He had been at Marseilles 
some time, and had all his stores in tip-top order. 
I arranged that Jemadar Wali Mahomed and Clerk 
Mangat Rai should join the Corps on arrival from 
the front, replacing another veterinary officer and 



THE SCENE CHANGES 



127 



clerk already appointed. I am lost without Mangat 
Rai, and he and Wali Mahomed are bosom friends. 

The command of No. 2 Cart Corps was given to 
Captain Porch, No. 3 to Captain Rennison, and 
No. 4 to Captain Aylmer. Captain Bird, O.C. 
1 1 th Mule Corps, who had been recalled from the 
Meerut Division, was spare officer. He had been 
in Marseilles two days when I arrived. Colonel 
Marriot told me that if I had come one day later 
he had made up his mind to give No. 1 Corps to 
Bird; so my stay in Paris nearly cost me the com- 
mand. The balance of No. 2 and the whole of 
Nos. 3 and 4 Corps were to be formed from trans- 
port then at the front, which was to be replaced 
by additional horse-transport. A few days later it 
began to arrive in Marseilles. 

I took up my quarters at the Hotel Regina, 
where Captains Porch and Bird were already stay- 
ing, and we managed to put in a very enjoyable 
time in Marseilles. The mornings were spent in 
holding inspections of my new Corps. So well had 
Pulleyn done his work, that practically nothing was 
deficient or incorrect. It was a great score to get 
command of the 1 st Corps, because we got the pick 
of everything : by the time No. 4 was being 
equipped, there was a shortage of clothing and 
ordnance gear. 

The four Cart Corps were styled " The Indian 
Mule Cart Train, Mediterranean Expeditionary 



128 ON TWO FRONTS 

Force." Colonel C. H. Bevllle, S. & T. Corps, 
was appointed to command the Train, with Captain 
Pulleyn as his adjutant. The Headquarters also 
included Captain Bird, Conductor Galway, Kot 
Duffadar Jiwan and two or three orderlies. No. i 
Corps was to sail as soon as ships could be made 
ready, and on March 27 s.s. Ramazan and another 
steamer arrived in the docks, and work was im- 
mediately put in hand to fit up these ships for 
carrying mules. I spent a good deal of time advis- 
ing on the arrangements, and planning the disposal 
of my command on board. It was decided that the 
whole of No. 1 Corps and one troop of No. 2 should 
sail in these two ships. Pulleyn, Conductor Gal- 
way and Kot Duffadar Jiwan were to accompany 
us : 577 mules were allotted to the Ramazan, and 
620 to the other vessel. 

Rennison arrived in Marseilles accompanied by 
Singer, who had managed to persuade the authori- 
ties that his services were indispensable till the 
2nd Mule Corps actually left France. At Mar- 
seilles he made strong representations with a view 
to accompanying the Mule Train to Gallipoli. 
" How could the Train," he argued, " find its way 
through Turkey without a French interpreter; and 
who more suitable than he, for had he not once 
spent a night in Constantinople ? Moreover, there 
were to be French troops alongside the British and 
Indians. His knowledge of Hindustani would be 



THE SCENE CHANGES 129 

invaluable." (With his great facility for languages, 
Singer had picked up quite a lot of Hindustani.) 
But the authorities were adamant, and Singer had 
to return to the Western Front. He had a good 
time in Marseilles, though! Moillis received a 
commission, and wrote that he had been posted 
as interpreter to the headquarters of an English 
Brigade. 

Rennison had been ordered to leave four British 
Warrant and N.C.O.s and one Indian adjutant 
behind with the pack-mules. He had selected 
Mr. Nagle, Mr. Green, Sergeants Jennings and 
Staton to remain, and Ressaidar Ghulam Mahomed. 
He brought Ressaidar Amir Khan, Sergeants 
Levings and Grainge with him. I was anxious to 
get Sergeant Levings posted to No. 1 Corps, but 
failed. It was disappointing, too, to leave my 
adjutant and Green and Staton behind : all had 
performed valuable services, and I should miss 
them greatly. 

Whilst at Marseilles I received a letter from 
Colonel Hennessy asking for names of any men 
whose good work at the front I desired to see re- 
warded. As a result Sergeant Levings was men- 
tioned in despatches a second time : Kot DurTadars 
Bahawal Din and Fatteh Khan, Naicks Khan Ghul 
and Mahomed Khan, and Driver Ruph Singh, 
27th Mule Corps (attached), received the Indian 
Distinguished Service Medal. I had letters from 



130 ON TWO FRONTS 

the C.O.s of several battalions expressing their 
regret at losing their mule-transport and their 
appreciation of what the men had done, and Renni- 
son showed me a letter he had had from the C.R.A. 
Lahore Division, referring to the invaluable 
services of the men of the 2nd Mule Corps with 
the Ammunition Columns. 

Our two transports were ready on April' 3, and 
loading began. It took a long time to take to 
pieces and load 550 carts. We were booked to 
sail on the 5th. That morning, at 6 a.m., we 
started embarking the mules, and the whole 11 97 
were safely aboard by 11.30. All the animals 
were slung on board in pairs, and the rapidity with 
which it was accomplished was very satisfactory. 
At the last moment it was decided to send Captain 
Baddeley, of the 15 th Lancers, in command of 
troops in one ship. He had commanded at the 
front a contingent of mule-transport from the army 
of the Native State of Indore, and his men and 
animals were being embodied in No. 4 Corps, 
whose arrival he was to await at the base. Con- 
ductors Appleby and Galway and Sergeant Smith 
travelled with him; Captain Pulleyn, Conductor 
Brown and Sergeant Clarke with me in the 
Ramazan 

After an inspection of the two ships by the Base 
Commandant, we started that afternoon on our 
journey. The weather was perfect; the prospect 



THE SCENE CHANGES 131 

of a few days' soothing voyage, with unknown 
adventures to follow, was an attractive one. 
Regret at leaving France was tempered by a 
pleasant feeling of anticipation. 



CHAPTER XII 

EASTWARD BOUND 

The voyage to Alexandria, to which port the 
skipper's sealed orders directed him to proceed, was 
a thoroughly enjoyable rest for everybody. The 
weather was ideal, and the ship most comfortable, 
there being ample and well-arranged accommoda- 
tion for men and animals. The skipper, Captain 
Leggat, a particularly nice fellow, wished to make 
over his cabin to me and to sleep in the chart- 
room; but, naturally, I could not accept this sacri- 
fice. I shared with Pulleyn a large two-berth 
cabin — better than many one sees on large liners, 
though the Ramazan was quite a small tramp 
steamer with a speed of eight knots. Captain 
Leggat, who had commanded her ever since she 
was launched, took a great pride in her. 

Every morning we had C.O.'s inspection. 
Otherwise, apart from stable routine, no work was 
done. The other transport sailed just after us, 
but next morning she had dropped astern and was 
out of sight, which greatly pleased Captain Leggat, 
for the Ramazan was supposed to be a slower ship 
than the other, which reached Alexandria only an 
hour behind us on April n. 

132 



EASTWARD BOUND 133 

The harbour was full of shipping of every de- 
scription, including at least a dozen captured 
German liners which were being used for trans- 
ports. We went ashore to report ourselves, and 
now learned something of the plan of campaign. 
A force composed of an Army Corps of Australians 
and New Zealanders, the 29th British Division, 
the Royal Naval Division, and about 30,000 
French troops, was to effect a landing in Gallipoli, 
with the capture of Constantinople as its ultimate 
objective. The base was to be Alexandria, and the 
advance base the island of Lemnos. The force 
had been fitted out with transport on the British 
scale. 

Colonel Koe (now Major-General Koe, C.B., 
C.M.G.), on being appointed Director of Supply 
and Transport, had asked for some Indian Mule 
Transport as a sort of " emergency ration " in case 
British Transport should prove unsuitable. He 
had seen Indian Mule Transport in China, and had 
been struck by its adaptability to rough conditions. 
At present no role had been assigned to the Mule 
Corps : it was to be used " as required ". One 
hundred and thirty-eight carts were to be handed 
over to an Indian Infantry Brigade, expected 
shortly in Alexandria from the Canal bank; the 
remainder of the Corps was to disembark and 
camp at Mex Camp, while one Captain, two Sub- 
alterns and several N.C.O.s were to be detailed 



134 ON TWO FRONTS 

to accompany the 138 carts. I explained to Colonel 
Koe that I myself was the only officer with 500 
carts, and that Baddeley had received orders to 
remain at the base. The next morning the Rama- 
zan was berthed alongside a wharf, and disembarka- 
tion began. We had been at it about two hours, 
when orders arrived to increase the number of 
carts for the Indian Brigade to 184. These were 
to be disembarked and sent to Camp Mex, and the 
rest of the Corps was to go straight to the advance 
base. 

This was capital news. The prospect of sitting 
in camp at Alexandria was not an alluring one : 
having come so far, we wished to see the show. 
I asked Colonel Koe to be allowed to send four 
complete troops to the Indian Brigade, i. e. 200 
carts instead of 184, so as not to upset the organisa- 
tion, and received permission to do so. I then ob- 
served that it was a pity the Ramazan had been 
berthed and not the other ship, because I should 
have liked to detail the four troops of the 15th 
Mule Corps from the latter; these were all men 
of the same caste, and it would be a good plan 
to keep them together. To my surprise, Colonel 
Koe at once agreed and arranged for the Ramazan 
to be taken out into the stream and the other 
vessel brought alongside. It meant a certain 
amount of extra trouble, as the stuff already un- 
loaded from the Ramazan had first to be reloaded; 



EASTWARD BOUND 135 

but it was well worth it, though few officers unac- 
customed to the idiosyncrasies of Indian troops 
would have recognised the fact. 

The disembarkation of the four troops was a 
slow business, for the crew were both unruly and 
careless. The men at the crane made two or three 
mistakes, resulting in some cart-bodies being 
dropped into the harbour. Their recovery by a 
diver was regarded by the Indians as a miracle. 
When the man, clad in his weird uniform, dis- 
appeared from view, they gaped with astonishment. 
The reappearance of the lost articles was greeted 
with loud cheers, and when the diver himself 
returned to the surface their amazement know no 
bounds. They had seen a lot. of strange happen- 
ings during their sojourn in the West, but the 
performance of the diver was one which impressed 
them most. The celebrated mango trick was a 
fool compared to this. If they had dared, I 
believe they would have dropped a mule over- 
board, just to see the show again, and expected it 
to come up alive. 

The four troops left for Lemnos on April 17. 
Transports were leaving Alexandria daily with 
units of the Australians and of the 29th Division. 
Probably no finer Division than this ever took the 
field in any campaign, for it was composed of bat- 
talions which had been on foreign service when 
war broke out. Officers and men were hardened, 



136 ON TWO FRONTS 

trained and desciplined veterans, whose appear- 
ance justified the feeling that if there were a 
tough job to be done, these were the men to do it. 
The K.O.S.B.s embarked at the wharf opposite 
to that at which we had been berthed. Their 
discipline could be gauged from the way they 
formed up and went aboard : it was proved by their 
behaviour at Krithia a fortnight later, when they 
added fresh lustre to the records of a famous 
regiment. 

The Ramazan was about to leave Alexandria, 
when an order was received to " stop all ships sail- 
ing." Again it looked as if we were to be left 
behind. It transpired that the troopship Manitou 
had been attacked by a Turkish torpedo-boat some- 
where off Smyrna, and two others were said to be 
about. Three torpedoes had been fired, all of 
which missed, though some lives were lost through 
the capsizing of a boat. H.M.S. Minerva had 
sunk the torpedo-boat. 

On April 19 the Ramazan got away. She 
joined a fleet consisting of six French transports, 
the hospital ship Gascon and a British supply ship, 
escorted by the French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc. Late 
in the evening the cruiser signalled to us to go 
on alone and make for Mudros harbour, Lemnos. 

It was odd that in the Ramazan there was 
nobody excepting myself who could read the Morse 
code. It was fortunate that I could do so, for we 



EASTWARD BOUND 137 

needed it quite a lot. Having been regimental 
Signalling Officer in the Somersets for three years, 
I had not quite forgotten the art. Conductor Gal- 
way had to read the signals in our other transport, 
there being no ship's officer qualified to do so. 
Late in the night, after leaving Alexandria, the 
skipper sent down to my cabin to ask me to come 
up on the bridge and read some lamp-signals. A 
ship was signalling quite close to us, and the skipper 
could not make her out at all. She was a man-o'- 
war, but she flew no flag and was certainly not 
British, and he thought she might be an enemy. 
First she sent " What's your name ? " ; then " Your 
number? " To this we replied with an electric 
torch — there being no signalling equipment on 
board — that we had no number. Most of the 
transports had been allotted numbers, which were 
painted on their sides, but for some reason or other 
we had not been given one. The strange vessel 
signalled, " State your number at once." We 
replied as before. Then, " Your destination?" 
By this time I was in two minds whether to sound 
the alarm and turn out the men ready to take to 
the boats. However, her next signal was, " Pro- 
ceed with your voyage. Good-night." I replied 
" Good-night," and returned to bed. 

The Ramazan arrived safely at Mudros on April 
22, having seen no sign of the enemy torpedo- 
boats. During the summer she made several more 



138 ON TWO FRONTS 

successful trips between Alexandria and the Pen- 
insula, but she did the dangerous journey once 
too often. After being badly holed by a shell at 
Suvla Bay, she fell a victim to a submarine, and 
was torpedoed and sunk in September. 



CHAPTER XIII 

MUDROS BAY 

The scene at Mudros Bay was interesting in 
the extreme. Probably nothing to compare with 
it has ever been seen or will be seen again. 
Mudros is a fine natural harbour of picturesque 
shape, with numerous small bays; and the island 
of Lemnos, rather bare of trees but green after the 
recent rain, made an effective background to a 
wonderful picture, for in the harbour lay every 
conceivable kind of vessel that sails the seas. 
Battleships of the latest class, Dreadnoughts, 
cruisers, destroyers, torpedo-boats, submarines, 
mine-sweepers, sea-plane ship, transports of every 
size and kind, hospital-ships, trawlers, paddle- 
boats, picket-boats, steam and electric launches, 
cutters and dinghies were there, British and French. 
There was one Russian cruiser as well, the Askold, 
a strange-looking vessel with five funnels. The 
^ueen Elizabeth, Triumph and Majestic were 
close to our allotted berth. Sea-planes were in the 
air carrying out preliminary reconnaissances. 

Many of the transports had lighters in tow to 
be used for landing guns, animals and stores. 

139 



Ho ON TWO FRONTS 

The troops were to land from rowing-boats towed 
by picket-boats, or from ships' cutters pulled by- 
crews of bluejackets. Practice landings were 
going on. We saw men lined up on the decks of 
cruisers and destroyers. On the word of com- 
mand they leapt into the cutters lying alongside 
and were pulled ashore, where, led by an officer in 
the bow, they would spring on to the beach and, 
taking extended order, advance at the double. 
The coast of Lemnos was most suitable for this 
exercise. 

There were already several camps on the island, 
and huts were beginning to spring up in addition 
to tents, for some of the troops had been at Lemnos 
for nearly two months. The French had a large 
camp at the further end of the harbour. On these 
April days it looked a pleasant enough place to 
live in; it was very different in September, all 
parched and burnt up, with not a blade of green 
grass to rest the eye. 

Soon after our arrival, the A.D.T., M.E.F., 
Major Striedinger, came aboard, bringing the 
thrilling news that the landing was to begin on the 
25th, and that our Corps was to take part in it. 
The A.D.T. saw no prospect of landing the carts 
at first, and expected that the mules would have to 
swim ashore. In the event of it not being feasible 
to land carts, it had been decided to use our mules 
for carrying packs. The saddle is convertible. 



MUDROS BAY 141 

It is primarily a pack-saddle; but, with the addition 
of a pin to secure the curricle-bar, a different pat- 
tern of breast-piece and a pair of traces and swingle- 
trees, it can be adapted for draught work : all these 
extras are carried by the driver in his bundle of 
gear. There are several Mule Corps which are not 
equipped with the combined pack and draught 
saddle, and it seemed rather a stroke of luck for the 
Dardanelles expedition that ours did not happen 
to be one of them! 

Being a cart corps, we had no receptacles for 
carrying water as a pack load. I had tried to get 
some canvas bags or tanks during our brief stay 
in Alexandria, but without success : this was a 
great misfortune and was a serious handicap 
throughout our stay in Gallipoli. It was not until 
August that we were provided with a sufficient 
number of really satisfactory water-carrying 
receptacles. 

The Ramazan anchored about two ships' lengths 
from our other transport, just inside the boom 
which had been laid right across the entrance to 
the harbour to protect the shipping from submarine 
attack. We paid her a visit, and learned from 
Baddeley that they had been there for two days 
without receiving any orders. 

There was great difficulty in getting about the 
harbour: the only means of doing so was by 
manning a ship's boat. This was no joke if one 



H2 ON TWO FRONTS 

had far to go, for it was very heavy pulling. How- 
ever, it was absolutely essential that I should see 
Colonel "Koe before leaving Mudros, so Captain 
Leggat provided a boat and crew, and we rowed 
about a mile to the Royal Mail Yacht Arcadian. 
On board were Sir Ian Hamilton and the Staff of 
the M.E.F. Here I received orders to detail 150 
carts, with 324 mules and establishment, for service 
with the 29th Division which was to land at the 
point of the Peninsula. The rest of the Corps 
was to go with the Australian and New Zealand 
Army Corps to Gaba Tepe, about ten miles up 
the coast. 

The plan of campaign was for the 29 th Division 
to attack from the toe of the Peninsula, and push 
back the Turkish Army, which was known to be 
entrenched there, into the arms of the Australasians. 
The Asiatic shore was to be heavily bombarded 
by the ships, to give the idea that this was the main 
attack, and a French force was to be landed there, 
while other feints of landing were to be made by 
the Royal Naval Division further up the coast. 
I asked whether the two detachments of my Corps 
were likely to link up again, and was told that if 
they did not do so in three days the campaign 
would have failed. It was eight months before the 
failure was admitted to be irrevocable : all that 
time the British and French forces did their level 
best to turn it into a success. 



MUDROS BAY 143 

We were to land, carrying three days' rations 
for men and animals. Seven days' rations were to 
be laid out on board, ready to be landed at the first 
opportunity. No kit whatever was to be taken 
ashore except what we stood up in : the ships 
would remain standing off the coast, and we should 
be able to get what we wanted from them after- 
wards. I was advised to take ashore the minimum 
number of men required, and to leave all unneces- 
sary people behind for the present, as there was 
sure to be difficulty about water. The services of 
Captains Baddeley and Pulleyn and of Conductor 
Galway were placed at my disposal. Colonel Koe 
said that, even with them, we had not nearly 
enough officers, and that the other Mule Corps 
from France could spare them better than we could. 
Baddeley was senior to me, but fortunately we were 
the best of friends, and he was so keen to accom- 
pany the first landing force that the question of 
seniority did not bother him at all. The Ramazan 
was detailed for Cape Helles, and the other trans- 
port for the Gaba Tepe fleet. 

I quickly made up my mind that Baddeley should 
take command of the three troops with the 29th 
Division, whilst I would accompany the remainder 
(four troops) with the Australians. The next thing 
to do was to report myself at Headquarters of the 
Australian Army Corp. Another bout of rowing, 
and we drew alongside the Headquarters ship, and 



144 ON TWO FRONTS 

found on board Colonel Lesslie and Major Wag- 
staff, both of the R.E., who were on General Bird- 
wood's Staff. They introduced me to Brigadier- 
General Carruthers, the D.A. & Q.M.G. of the 
Army Corps, and Colonel Knox, the A.Q.M.G. 
Both these officers seemed much pleased to hear 
that they were to have some Indian mules, as the 
question of ammunition and water-supply was 
rather troubling them, though Colonel Knox was 
disappointed that we had no water-receptacles. 
He took me to General Birdwood's cabin to report 
myself. I had met the General two or three times 
at Old Cliftonian dinners in India. He is one of 
the most loyal of Old Cliftonians, and always turns 
up if he possibly can. After lunching with Major 
Wagstaff, I repaired back to the Ramazan to write 
my orders, armed with a copy of " Operation 
Orders No. i " for the landing at Gaba Tepe. 
Later on I sent this historic document home by 
post, but to my intense disgust it never arrived. 
That evening I issued my orders as follows : 
Three troops of the ist Mule Corps on board the 
Ramazan to land at Cape Helles ; Captain Baddeley 
to command, assisted by Sergeant Clarke (who 
belonged to the ist Mule Corps and knew the 
men). The remaining two troops in the Ramazan 
(belonging to the 9th Mule Corps) to join the 
Australasian Army Corps at Gaba Tepe, after dis- 
embarking Captain Baddeley's party; Captain 



MUDROS BAY 145 

Pulleyn to command. The two troops in the 
other transport were to go direct to Gaba Tepe 
under my own command, with Conductor Brown. 
I should have liked to transfer two troops from the 
Ramazan then and there, but this was impossible, 
as there were no lighters available. These orders 
involved my moving across to the other transport, 
and Conductor Brown also. Captain Baddeley 
and Conductor Galway had to come over to the 
Ramazan. 

On the evening of the 24th the ships began to 
pass out through the boom, all the troops in the 
finest spirits, full of enthusiasm after the long 
delay. The Australians and New Zealanders espe- 
cially were longing for a fight, anxious to prove 
what Colonial troops could do. Most of them had 
spent the winter in Egypt, and had been disap- 
pointed at not being sent to France; but now they 
were to have their innings, and they meant to make 
the best of it. With bands playing, and men 
cheering wildly, the transports steamed up the 
harbour. The greetings between the French and 
British as they passed one another were particularly 
cordial : it was to be a joint enterprise, in which 
the Allies learned to recognise each other's worth. 

Amongst the transports was a singular vessel. 
In her port side was a gaping hole, and as she 
passed us, crowded to her fullest capacity with 
British soldiers, I noticed that the bridge was sand- 



146 ON TWO FRONTS 

bagged like a trench, and I read on her port bow 
the words. "River Cly". This was the now 
famous River Clyde : the last two letters had been 
cut off, for that was where the hole began. She 
was to be run aground, and put her troops ashore 
through the hole in her side, the hull of the vessel 
acting as some protection from fire. Machine-guns 
were mounted on the bridge to cover the landing. 

Our skipper presently received orders to take 
his ship into the inner harbour, to embark a portion 
of the Zion Mule Corps. The transport in which 
half the Zion Mule Corps had come from the base 
had gone aground, and our ship, being half empty, 
was to take them aboard. This meant that, instead 
of making direct for Gaba Tepe, we should have to 
go first with the Cape Helles fleet, for this portion 
of the Zionists was detailed for the 29th Division. 
It looked as though we were to be done out of 
taking part in the first landing; and in a sense we 
were, for, although we did land, we only did so to 
assist the Zionists instead of in our own right. 
Considering that a month previously this Zion 
Mule Corps had not even begun to exist, it was 
distinctly tantalising to be set aside in their favour. 
However, it was the fortune of war. Besides, 
they had water-receptacles, and we had not. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, D.S.O., who com- 
manded them, came aboard to arrange for the 
accommodation of men and animals. A few 



MUDROS BAY 147 

words about the Zion Mule Corps are perhaps 
required in explanation. The Corps had been 
raised by Colonel Patterson, on the invitation of 
General Maxwell, Commanding the Troops in 
Egypt, expressly for service with the Dardanelles 
Expedition. The men were all Jew refugees from 
Syria, and were a motley crowd, speaking many 
different languages. There were six British 
officers; all the rest were foreigners, and there was 
one man to each mule. The mules were a fine 
stamp of animal — much bigger than ours, and the 
equipment was different. They had wooden crates 
for carrying kerosene oil tins filled with water, two 
four-gallon tins on each side, so each mule carried 
sixteen gallons. Colonel Patterson told me he had 
not had time to get his tins painted : as it was, 
they could be seen for miles, glistening in the sun. 
The raising of this Corps was a remarkable feat : 
three weeks after the first man had signed on, the 
Corps had left the base, and inside a month they 
were under fire. It was the first complete Jew 
unit to take the field for something like two 
thousand years. 

The whole of the night of the 24th was occupied 
in transferring the Zionists. It was to our own 
interest, as well as to the interest of the expedition, 
to render every assistance in our power, and all the 
work in the ship was done by the Indians, who 
were kept hard at it the whole night. The ship was 



148 ON TWO FRONTS 

timed to sail at 6 a.m., and the skipper announced 
his intention of leaving at that hour whether the 
Zionists were on board or not. This necessitated 
Colonel Patterson making a trip to Headquarters 
to get the orders changed, and he returned shortly 
before we were about to weigh anchor with 
authority to delay the start until his unit was on 
board. It was nine o'clock before we eventually 
got away. As we passed our former anchorage, 
I was surprised to see the Rdmazan still lying at 
anchor. She signalled that she had had no orders 
to move : owing to an oversight, her orders to sail 
with the Cape Helles fleet at daybreak had not 
been delivered. It was too late then to do any- 
thing, and, signalling to her " Good luck", we 
passed out through the boom. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 

It was a glorious morning. A more auspicious 
day for the great landing could not have been 
chosen : not a cloud in the sky nor a breath of 
wind; the air cool and crisp, and the sun shining 
brilliantly. Soon the sound of guns became 
audible. The coast of Imbros was passed on the 
port side, and Tenedos, where the aeroplane base 
was established, on the starboard. As the outline 
of the coast of Gallipoli came in sight, all the 
officers gathered on the bridge, glasses in hand. 
Colonel Patterson had with him Lieutenants Gye 
and Rolo : they spoke Arabic and French, which 
served with some of the Zionists, though many 
spoke only Russian, and some, strange to say, 
nothing but German. 

The skipper had been given a chart with his 
orders, showing where to take up his station. It 
was just like a plan of the stalls of a theatre. There 
were six rows of berths for transports, and our place 
was second from the right in the second row — B 2 
it would have been in a box-office plan. As we 
stood on the bridge surveying the wonderful 

149 



ISO ON TWO FRONTS 

panorama, the thought crossed my mind that 
an American millionaire would have given any 
money to have changed places with one of us that 
day. 

We were almost opposite the mouth of the Dar- 
danelles, standing off what was afterwards known 
as " V Beach ", about a mile and a half out. Here 
the River Clyde could be seen aground near the 
shore; but the plan had not worked out quite as 
intended, for she grounded a little too far from the 
coast, and a pier had to be constructed of lighters 
to enable the troops to land. It was for their 
splendid courage in fixing this pier that Captain 
Unwin, R.N., and two midshipmen received the 
Victoria Cross. In the Clyde were Munster and 
Dublin Fusiliers, and some of the Hampshire 
Regiment. 

Between the " stalls " and the coast were numer- 
ous battleships and cruisers firing broadsides. 
Euryalus, flagship of the Helles fleet, away on our 
port bow, carried the Admiral and General Hunter- 
Weston, Commanding the 29th Division: other 
ships supporting the landing were the London, 
Lord Nelson, Agamemnon and Cornwallis. One 
or two were beyond the mouth of the Straits. The 
Russian cruiser Askold — conspicuous for her five 
funnels — and several French ships were firing on 
the Asiatic side. With the naked eye we could dis- 
tinctly see the bursting of the shells, and with our 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 151 

glasses could sometimes follow their effect. Kum 
Kale, on the Asiatic side, a village of mud build- 
ings, was undergoing a furious bombardment. 
Shell after shell of large calibre burst over it, and 
houses and huts were literally blown into mid-air. 
The hill of Achi Baba, too, was receiving a great 
deal of attention. Terrific clouds of smoke and 
dust heralded the arrival on its peak of the twelve- 
inch contributions of the Cornwallis and other 
ships. 

But at V Beach the landing on that Sunday 
morning had failed. The village of Sedd-el-Bahr 
was found to contain machine-guns and snipers 
galore, and it was necessary to defer the landing 
until the village had been cleared. The men in 
the Clyde, as they emerged from the ship, had 
almost all been shot down : the men in the tows 
fared no better. Only a very few got ashore. 
Late in the afternoon, the ships' guns opened on 
Sedd-el-Bahr; and, with the assistance of a Brigade, 
which, headed by the Lancashire. Fusiliers, had 
fought their way up the cliffs at W Beach a few 
hundred yards to the left, the village was cleared 
of the enemy. A successful landing at V was 
effected that night, and in the early hours of 
Monday morning. The Dublins and Munsters 
lost between them over 800 men — many of them 
killed before they ever set foot ashore. A com- 
posite battalion was afterwards formed from the 



152 ON TWO FRONTS 

remnants of the two battalions, and called the 
"Dubsters". 

On the Monday the shelling on the European 
side was less, and the landing was continued suc- 
cessfully. Some of the batteries were put ashore, 
and we could see the guns being dragged up the 
rough cliff road and coming into action on the 
crest. On the Asiatic side there was heavy artil- 
lery fire all day, and it seemed as if the French 
must be meeting with strong opposition. At inter- 
vals, transports would arrive from Mudros and 
drop anchor at their allotted berths. The " stalls " 
were filling up and we watched anxiously for the 
Ramazan y but she did not appear. Occasionally a 
picket-boat would come out and a naval officer 
would shout orders through a megaphone to the 
skipper of a transport. Then the ship would move 
out of the line and go closer in to discharge her 
cargo. We waited eagerly for our turn : surely 
the mules must be wanted to carry ammunition 
to the men as they advanced further from the 
beaches. Colonel Patterson took a ship's boat 
and pulled over to the Euryalus where he reported 
himself to General Hunter- Weston. On his 
return we heard that things were going satisfac- 
torily now, but the landing of the covering parties 
had been effected at a terrible cost, and progress 
was very slow. Both the hospital-ships had 
steamed away on the Sunday morning full of 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 153 

wounded. Now the wounded had to be taken to 
the empty transports, for no more hospital-ships 
were available. 

At last the picket-boat was seen heading in our 
direction. Through the megaphone came the 
question, " Is the Zion Mule Corps on board? " 

" Yes," we shouted back. 

" Well, you are to go in alongside the Corn- 
wallisy and land at once." 

The Cornwallis was opposite V Beach, a mile or 
so closer in. She was in action all the time, and 
when we drew alongside the concussion caused by 
her big guns shook our ship. 

A party of bluejackets, under Lieutenant 
Bowden-Smith, R.N., of the Euryalus, came 
aboard to assist the landing of the Zionists. The 
mules were slung from the holds into lighters, 
which were made fast to the ship. Colonel Pat- 
terson had asked for eight Indians to go ashore 
with each lighter to help his men, and all my 
drivers wanted to be the first to land. The selec- 
tion fell on a Dogra, Naick Narain Singh, and men 
of his troop. When the lighters were ready a 
picket-boat took them in tow and made for the 
River Clyde. On nearing the pier, she cast off 
the lighters, and the men had to jump into the 
water with the mules. Led by Driver Bir Singh, 
a splendid little Dogra, with four mules, they leapt 
into the sea which was about up to their necks. 



154 ON TWO FRONTS 

As they stepped ashore, a shell from behind 
whistled over their heads and plunged into the 
sand just in front of them. The men knew they 
would land under fire : they would have been dis- 
appointed if there had been none; but this was 
entirely unexpected. My first thought was that 
it was a shell with a defective fuse from one of our 
ships, which had burst short. But one after 
another they came, and soon we realised that they 
were being fired from Asia, across the mouth of 
the Straits. The beach was only a narrow strip 
of sand, with a low bank under which the first 
parties from the Clyde had taken shelter, but which 
provided no shelter at all from these " whizz- 
bangs". They were only small shells, however, 
and did very little damage. I saw two men sitting 
under the bank boiling a kettle : a shell burst 
between the two, hurting neither, but I don't think 
they got their tea. 

It was a busy scene on this strip of beach and 
on the grassy slopes above. Under the walls of 
the village of Sedd-el-Bahr, which afforded some 
protection from the Asiatic shells, was a big camp 
of French troops; they had piled their arms and 
were sitting about, smoking cigarettes. The 
Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division was 
acting as " beach party ", pulling guns ashore and 
dealing with all sorts of stores : they paid no atten- 
tion to the fire. By now all the machine-guns and 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 155 

snipers commanding the beach had been disposed 
of, and the infantry had advanced far enough to 
put the beach out of rifle range. As the mules 
came ashore, they were rushed up to an empty 
space near the French camp and picketed there. A 
lighter containing water-tins had arrived at the 
pier, and Colonel Patterson was organising a chain 
of his men to pass them along from hand to hand. 
These Zionists were taking their baptism of fire 
well : they had their fill of it the next few days, for 
water and ammunition were required at once, and 
the men had to go straight into action. 

Several of the naval officers superintending the 
landing had had no sleep since leaving Mudros 
and were pretty we'll played out, but they carried 
on regardless of themselves. A lighter containing 
guns drew in, and men were wanted to drag them 
ashore and up the slope. Everybody lent a hand. 
A naval officer fixed a long rope to the gun, and 
a mixed team of sailors, soldiers, Marines and 
mule-drivers hauled it up the hill. Everybody 
seemed to be in a good temper and anxious to help 
everybody else. 

Above the beach a burial party was hard at work 
digging a huge grave : close by were laid the 
corpses of the gallant men who had fallen in the 
last two days. There were quite 300 laid out in 
rows. A padre and a couple of doctors walked 
down the lines, collecting identification discs and 



156 ON TWO FRONTS 

making lists. It was a grim sight, but death seems 
different in war. 

" Poor fellows," some one said. " How young 
they look." 

But surely it is not the men themselves that we 
should pity. For them to die thus is a glorious 
thing. It is to those who love them and are left 
behind that one's sympathy goes out. Many 
bodies lay under the water, close to the beach : 
weighed down by their heavy kit, men had fallen 
and been unable to rise. Others had been shot 
in the boats before they reached the shore. A 
bluejacket told me that in his boat seventeen 
soldiers out of twenty had been hit. 

A distinguished-looking French General, with 
an English Staff Officer, was strolling up and down. 
He hailed Colonel Patterson as an old friend, and 
the Colonel introduced me to General d'Amade, 
the Commander of the French force. 

Headquarters of the 29th Division were at W 
Beach. I was anxious to let them know that 
Baddeley, with 300 mules, was in the Ramazan, 
only waiting for orders to land. Colonel Patter- 
son came with me along the cliff to W Beach, 
afterwards known as Lancashire Landing, to com- 
memorate the heroic deeds of the Lancashire 
Fusiliers. On the way we passed the fort of Sedd- 
el-Bahr, where on two of the huge but antiquated 
guns direct hits had been made. This fort had 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 157 

been put out of action during the naval bombard- 
ment in March : it was in a very exposed position, 
in full view from the sea, and the gun-emplace- 
ments were anything but up to date. We came 
upon a party of Engineers pumping water into a 
canvas tank. They had found a splendid spring 
in the cliff, and were getting a plentiful supply of 
water. 

The A.Q.M.G. of the 29th Division promised 
to wire for the Ramazan to start from Mudros at 
once. He wanted pack-mules badly, for it was 
quite obvious that wheeled transport could not be 
used until better roads had been made. 

It was getting dark when we found a picket- 
boat to take us back to our ship. The Asiatic 
battery was at it again, and shells hit the beach, 
the water and the Clyde. Orders came to dis- 
continue landing during the night, for the tide 
made it difficult. 

On our return, Colonel Patterson sent Rolo 
ashore to look after the men already landed, and 
ordered Gye to remain until the ship was cleared. 
It had been a very exciting day. There was no 
feeling of being " out of it " now : one was in it 
with a vengeance. 

The landing of the Zionists was completed next 
day. During the morning some more French 
troops landed near Cape Greco, and we watched 
them climb the cliff and advance to the attack. 



158 ON TWO FRONTS 

The Turks opened artillery fire at them from front 
and rear, but their shooting was very bad indeed, 
and the French went on calmly in extended order. 
The Asiatic batteries were pitching their shells 
short, most of them falling into the sea, and such 
casualties as did occur were from shrapnel fire in 
front. Some excitement was caused by a Taube 
visiting the shipping : it dropped six bombs, the 
nearest of which fell a ship's length from our bows 
into the sea, making a terrific splash which dis- 
persed the men on the forecastle. 

As soon as the Zionists were off, we made for 
Gaba Tepe. As we steamed up the coast we were 
overtaken by two famous ships, the ^jieen Eliza- 
beth, going dead slow beside us all the way, and 
the Amethyst. The renowned "Lizzie" is mag- 
nificent, with her 15-inch guns fore and aft. The 
cruiser Amethyst had the distinction of having 
gone further up the Dardanelles than any other 
ship. Off Gaba Tepe we dropped anchor a mile 
out, between the balloon-ship and H.M.S. Ark 
Royal, which carried the sea-planes. 

The transports of the Australasian Army Corps, 
with their covering ships and the great sausage- 
balloon hovering over them, had been visible from 
Cape Helles. The landing here had been effected 
with success; but the impetuous Colonials who 
formed the covering-party had gone too far with- 
out supports, and, running short of ammunition, 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 159 

had had to retire to their first position. They were 
evidently firmly established now, for the landing 
was in full swing. It was not long before a tug 
and lighters came out to us, and the disembarkation 
of the mules began. 

The first impression given by the now famous 
Anzac position was one of amazement that it could 
ever have been taken at all. The beach is very 
narrow, and the cliffs rise almost sheer from the 
sea. Gaba Tepe Point lies a mile to the south, and 
it was there that it had been intended to land, but 
in the grey light of dawn the ships had overshot 
the mark, and it was well that they did so, for the 
landing at u Anzac" took the enemy by surprise. 
They had made none of the elaborate prepara- 
tions for defence which characterised Cape Helles, 
and Gaba Tepe, too, as we afterwards discovered. 
There was no barbed wire, and the Turks had to 
bring guns up and train them on the beach after 
the landing had actually begun. But the storming 
of the heights was a glorious feat of arms of which 
the Colonial troops and their countrymen are 
entitled to be proud. Walker's Ridge on the left 
looks a well-nigh impregnable position, towering 
above the sea to a height of perhaps 400 feet. The 
only easy gradient was through the valley after- 
wards known as Shrapnel Valley and Monash 
Gully; but this was a perfect death-trap, for snipers 
and machine-guns lay concealed in the thick under- 



160 ON TWO FRONTS 

growth of the hills on either side. From the sea, 
shrapnel could be seen bursting on top of the cliffs, 
over the beaches and on the water, for the position 
was in full view of the Turkish gunners at Gaba 
Tepe. Every boat that went ashore was shelled, 
but luckily the shooting was none too good. 

As our first two lighters laden with mules ap- 
proached the land, one of them began to sink. 
Hurriedly letting down the end of the lighter, the 
mules were pushed into the water and made their 
own way ashore, while the men jumped into the 
other lighter. All the mules were saddled up, so 
no equipment was lost — only a few bags of grain 
and bales of hay. I found Colonel Knox on the 
beach with his head bound up, having been hit by 
a splinter of shell the first day. He told me that 
for the present my detachment would be attached 
to the Australian Division, and that I was to report 
to Colonel Marsh, of the A.S.C. 

The congestion on the narrow beach was appal- 
ling : there was scarcely room to move. The por- 
tion now known as Anzac Cove was the chief centre 
of activity. Here a couple of rough piers had been 
built by the Engineers, and all day and night 
picket-boats and lighters were drawing alongside 
with loads of men, guns, animals, ammunition and 
stores. Supply and Ordnance depots were estab- 
lished on the beach, where there were already a lot 
of battery horses and gun-limbers and two sets of 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 161 

mule-lines. A portion of the 33rd Mule Corps 
had landed with two Indian Mountain Batteries, 
and the other half of the Zion Corps was already 
ashore and attached to the New Zealand Division. 

It took three days to clear our ship. The ninety 
carts had to be put together in the hold and then 
slung complete into lighters. The hold of a ship, 
crammed with component parts of carts, is not 
exactly the place one would choose to work in, 
and we were terribly short-handed. No naval 
working party was provided here : the drivers had 
to do all the work, find parties to escort every 
lighter-load of mules, and work the mules ashore. 
But the men worked hard, with little rest, until 
the job was finished. One nasty accident occurred. 
A ladder leading from the 'tween-decks to the hold 
gave way, and a driver fell headlong some thirty 
feet into the midst of the carts. He was very 
badly hurt, fracturing a thigh and sustaining other 
injuries. A signal was made to the hospital-ship. 
Devanha, which, with great promptitude, sent a 
boat for the unfortunate man. 

With only one Britisher besides myself, the 
control of the landing was difficult. It was essen- 
tial for one of us to remain ashore to run the trans- 
port, and I sent Mr. Brown to do this, myself 
making the journey backwards and forwards, at- 
tending to the landings and seeing the ship cleared. 
Most fortunately, Colonel Marsh could speak 



1 62 ON TWO FRONTS 

Hindustani, having served for several years in the 
9th Bengal Lancers; and he found another man, 
one Driver Cullen of the A.S.C., who also knew 
the language and rendered valuable aid. The 
mules were picketed on the open beach at the south 
end of the position, called Brighton Beach, and 
the men scraped out holes in the sandy cliff for 
themselves. 

No sooner was our ship done with than the 
Ramazan arrived and had to be unloaded. She 
had disembarked Baddeley and his party at Cape 
Helles on the night of the 29th under heavy shell- 
fire which had been directed on the transports as 
well as on the beaches, and the Ramazan had to 
weigh anchor and move out of the way. It was 
several days, owing to the scarcity of lighters, 
before the ship was emptied and the whole of my 
command ashore. One more lighter was sunk 
coming in, but fortunately it contained only forage. 
It was arranged that the Ramazan should remain 
as our depot-ship; so all our reserve gear and 
material was left on board, there being no room for 
it on the beach. 

Before the landing was completed some of the 
enemy big guns succeeded in hitting the trans- 
ports : at once there was a general scurry, and all 
the shipping seemed to be on the move. The 
smaller craft hastened to the assistance of the 
damaged ships. The transports weighed anchor 



FIRST LANDING IN GALLIPOLI 163 

and steamed further out, where they formed up 
again out of range, while the men-o'-war changed 
their positions. H.M.S. Queen was the flagship 
during the Anzac landing, and in addition there 
were Triumph, Bacchante, Prince of Wales and 
Ark Royal. The Queen Elizabeth only remained 
a day or two before going south again. Until the 
submarines appeared these ships must have had 
rather an enjoyable time : they had plenty of pretty 
shooting, and although the enemy tried to retaliate 
by sending over some big shells from the forts of 
Kilid Bahr and Chanak, which raised great columns 
of water where they pitched, no serious damage 
was done to a single one of our men-o'-war. The 
lot of the trawlers and picket-boats was a much 
less enviable one : they had to run the gauntlet of 
shrapnel fire every journey, and were constantly 
hit. The cool courage and resource of the mid- 
shipmen who commanded the picket-boats was 
most praiseworthy, as was their efficiency in hand- 
ling their boats. The skippers and crews of the 
trawlers were all of the hardy fisherman type, who 
spend their lives in peace-time braving the rigours 
of the North Sea. To them difficulties and dangers 
were a matter of course. 

The Turks made furious and frequent attacks, 
firing incessantly, so that little sleep was possible; 
but the Australians and New Zealanders had gained 
their footing and did not mean to lose it. They 



164 ON TWO FRONTS 

were absolutely confident of their ability to hold 
on against all attempts to drive them out. An 
advance was out of the question until the Cape 
Helles troops were able to join up. In the mean- 
time the position at Anzac threatened the Turkish 
line of retreat, and necessitated the retention of a 
large force to prevent. their communications being 
cut. 



CHAPTER XV 

EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 

The position at Anzac is best described as a bite 
out of a biscuit. It was a rough semi-circle, the 
seashore forming the diameter and the trenches 
the circumference, while no part of the firing-line 
was much more than a mile from the beach, and on 
the right and left the flank trenches reached right 
down to the sea. The whole area was something 
under 700 acres. 

On the right, the trenches ran from low ground 
by the beach, gradually ascending till at Quinn's 
Post and Pope's Hill they must have been 300 feet 
above the sea. Working round to the left, the 
ground was higher still, culminating in Walker's 
Ridge — the most commanding feature of the 
position, whence a magnificent view could be 
obtained. 

Looking to the north, across the low scrub- 
covered hills, the village of Anafarta could be seen, 
its tall white mosque standing out conspicuously : 
beyond were the "W" hills and Suvla Ridge. 
Near the sea, the country was flatter and more 
open, and only a few hundred yards outside our 

165 



1 66 ON TWO FRONTS 

lines were fields of poppies, whose brilliant scarlet 
added a pleasing splash of colour to the landscape. 
To the west, across the sea, lay the islands of 
Imbros and Samothrace. The sun used to set 
behind Samothrace with all the glory for which 
sunsets in the iEgean Sea are famous. The view 
from Walker's Ridge at sundown on a fine day 
was hard to beat : its peaceful beauty ought never 
to have been disturbed by the din of battle. Anzac 
would have been a splendid holiday resort in hap- 
pier times, with its grand climate in the early 
summer months : fine golf links could be laid out 
along the stretch between the old position and 
Suvla Bay; there is good sea-fishing, too; and 
those rugged hills must surely contain some kinds 
of game, while the sea-bathing is of the very best — 
the water clear and warm, and deep within a few 
yards of the shore. 

Almost everywhere the Turkish trenches were 
on higher ground than ours. Between the hills 
were numerous gullies, used as rest-camps for 
troops out of the trenches, for Headquarters of the 
Army Corps and Divisions, and for mule-lines : 
the most capacious of these was the one lying 
behind Walker's Ridge, which later on became the 
Headquarters of the Indian Mule Corps, and was 
christened " Mule Gully". Next to it was "Re- 
serve Gully ", beloved by 12-pounder " Anafarta " 
and one of the *75's. There were three gullies 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 167 

giving on to the main beach at Anzac Cove, known 
as New Zealand Gully, Army Corps Gully and 
Anzac Gully. On the right, Shrapnel Valley was 
a prominent feature : it led to Quinn's Post and 
Pope's Hill, two posts where some of the heaviest 
fighting took place. The upper part of this valley 
was called Monash Gully, after General Monash, 
of the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade. Above it, 
on the right, was Shell Green — a large open tract 
of grass. 

From Brighton Beach, on the right of the posi- 
tion, one passed round a point known as Hell Spit 
to Anzac Cove, whence by way of Ari Burnu 
Point the North Beach was reached. The reverse 
slopes of all the gullies and the banks of the cliffs 
overhanging the beaches soon became a perfect 
rabbit-warren of holes, forming the homes of those 
members of the force whose work lay behind the 
trenches. Every one who would have lived in a 
billet in France now had a dug-out for his abode. 
In the early days these dug-outs were rough and 
ready — no more than a hole scraped in the earth; 
but as time went on, and it became evident that 
Anzac was to be a standing camp, great ingenuity 
(assisted by skilful larceny!) was shown in the con- 
struction and improvement of dug-outs. Some 
became almost palatial, with roofs, doors, and even 
floors and windows. 

The first camp of the Mule Corps on Brighton 



1 68 ON TWO FRONTS 

Beach was obviously only temporary : it was 
merely a question of time before we were shelled 
out of it. However we had to make the best of 
it, so we did our utmost to provide cover for men 
and animals by throwing up earthworks and 
digging deep into the cliffs, while barricades of 
bales of hay, bags of grain and biscuit-boxes were 
formed on the exposed flank. We were mainly 
dependent on our own efforts, but Colonel Marsh 
was very good in providing fatigue parties of the 
Australian A.S.C. whenever possible. The drivers 
were too busy to spare much time for digging, for 
they were constantly going backwards and forwards 
to the trenches on the right, carrying supplies and 
ammunition. As had been anticipated, the ques- 
tion of watering the animals was a critical one at 
first. Mr. Brown, remembering that he had read 
in Robinson Crusoe something about scraping 
holes in the sand, adopted this expedient with 
instant success, and for the first few days, till it 
became brackish, the mules had nothing but water 
obtained in this way. When these water-holes 
failed, the mules had to go to a well south of 
Brighton Beach, which could not be approached 
by daylight; and there was not much time to spare 
for watering during the hours of darkness, as it 
was then that most of the work was done. 

On May 4 a demolition party of about 150 
men attempted to land at Gaba Tepe Point. Very 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 169 

early in the morning destroyers conveying the 
party drew in close to the shore, but the enemy 
were not to be caught napping : they were ready 
entrenched above the beach, along which lines of 
barbed wire were stretched. The Triumph and 
the destroyers opened fire to cover the landing, but 
the resistance was too great, and the little expedi- 
tion had to be taken off without accomplishing its 
object. Some of the men who had succeeded in 
landing made their way along the beach, pursued 
by rifle-fire from the Turks : and half a dozen, 
very excited, reached our camp safely, but some 
had been hit and had to be left behind. This little 
affair could be clearly followed with glasses from 
Brighton Beach. The destroyers had been very 
pluckily handled, for they had gone in within a few 
yards of the shore to cover the withdrawal of the 
soldiers. The good feeling between soldiers and 
sailors was shown by each giving three cheers for 
the others as the party disembarked at Brighton 
pier. 

A day or two later, before our rough entrench- 
ments could be completed, the expected shelling 
of Brighton Beach began. A man was seen riding 
along the sands from Gaba Tepe waving a white 
handkerchief. It seemed odd that he should be 
doing so in full view of the Turks, if his surrender 
was in good faith : it looked rather as though he 
were making signals to the enemy, and some of us 



170 ON TWO FRONTS 

were inclined to finish him off. However, some 
Australians on the beach, anxious to secure a 
prisoner, rushed out to meet him, rendering it 
impossible to shoot without the risk of hitting 
them. The man was seized, blindfolded, and 
taken to headquarters. Whether there was any 
connection between the two incidents I cannot say, 
but the fact remains that directly that man was out 
of the way the Turks opened with shrapnel, fired 
in salvoes of four guns, right into the middle of 
the mule camp. Everybody went to ground as 
far as possible, but cover was inadequate, and men 
and animals began to fall. As soon as there was 
a lull — but not before a good many mules had 
been knocked over — an attempt was made to shift 
the camp, and the mules were rushed round Hell 
Spit Corner, where— out of the enemy's sight — 
they were picketed again. All was quiet for two 
or three hours, and the men were sent back to 
Brighton Beach to fetch the saddlery and gear. 
There was only a guard of one N.C.O. and twelve 
men present, when Colonel Lesslie, the Military 
Landing Officer, came along with the message from 
headquarters that all animals were to be moved 
off the beach and kept in gullies leading into the 
hills. Colonel Lesslie had scarcely given the order, 
when "Beachy Bill", as this gun was afterwards 
called, opened fire again. The guard turned out 
at once, and — assisted by Australians and New 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 171 

Zealanders who were standing about and at once 
volunteered for the work — hurriedly unshackled 
the mules and led them away. They were fol- 
lowed all along the beach by the persistent and 
obnoxious attentions of Beachy Bill, whose fire was 
more like a violent hail-storm than anything else. 
The men who had gone to fetch the gear came 
rushing up, headed by Ressaidar Hashmet Ali, and 
joined in the rescue. Although the site of our 
new camp could not be seen by the enemy, they 
must have known where it was, for the fire was 
deadly accurate, and before safety could be reached 
eighty-nine mules and two horses had been hit; the 
N.C.O. of the guard was wounded, Driver Bir 
Singh hit in the head, and other Indians and 
several Australians were casualties. Many mules 
were killed outright, and many others lay where 
they had fallen, unable to rise : those had to be 
shot, and that evening the beach was strewn with 
dead animals — a pitiful sight. 

The next thing to be done was to collect the 
scattered men and animals and find a new camp. 
A visit to the 26th Mountain Battery, encamped 
on the slopes above the North Beach, was not 
exactly encouraging, for Major Bruce, the O.C., 
said there wasn't a safe square inch anywhere. We 
had just started to lay out lines in what seemed a 
fairly secluded spot when we were told that to 
settle there was to ask for trouble, so we had to 



172 ON TWO FRONTS 

try elsewhere. Finally Mule Gully was selected, 
and here we pitched our camp. But now the 
question of water arose again, and animals were 
urgently needed for duties on the right flank. 
After consultation with Colonel Marsh, it was 
decided to leave a troop at Brighton Beach and 
to dig them thoroughly into the cliff, whilst the 
water question was solved for the time being by 
scraping more holes in the sand. Mule Gully was 
only about 1 50 yards from the outside trenches on 
the left, but the cliffs were steep, and it afterwards 
proved to be about the safest place in the whole 
position. 

On going round the new lines I noticed a big 
black mare which had certainly not been there 
before. This was the horse which our Turkish 
friend had brought in. Nobody seemed to have 
a better right to her than our Corps, so I took her 
over as a second charger. As things turned out 
I never got upon her back, for there was no possi- 
bility of riding at Anzac before the Suvla landing 
in August, and for those operations I lent the mare 
to General Godley, and she was killed. 

To take charge of the detached troop the services 
of another Hindustani-speaking Britisher were 
essential to interpret orders to the men. Mr. Gal- 
way had been left in charge on the Ramazan, and 
a signal was made for him to come ashore. He 
joined Mr. Brown and myself in our new dug-out 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 173 

one evening, delighted to see something at last, 
for in France he had been all the time at a base. 
All night long bullets were whistling overhead, 
and he told us at breakfast they had kept him 
awake, for it was his first experience of fire. We 
walked over to Brighton Beach together, and it 
was arranged that he should share a dug-out with 
the Sergeant-Major of the A.S.C., so I left him 
comfortably established there, promising to visit 
the detachment every day. That very afternoon 
Beachy Bill got on to the detachment with disas- 
trous effects : Mr. Galway was killed, two drivers 
were wounded, and again we lost a number of 
mules. Galway's death was a great blow : he was 
a splendid-looking man of considerable ability, 
with a fine record in the Corps. We buried him 
that night, not twenty-four hours after he had left 
the ship, the padre reading the service. 

A supply-depot was established at the foot of 
Mule Gully, in charge of Lieutenants Eliot and 
Higginson of the New Zealand A.S.C. These 
two officers joined Brown and me in our mess, and 
this arrangement lasted for three months. The 
mess dug-out, in which I also slept, was made very 
comfortable and quite proof against splinters and 
bullets. Brown was both architect and builder, 
and showed considerable aptitude for the work. 
The earth was dug to a depth of about three feet : 
walls were made of grain-bags filled with sand, a 



174 ON TWO FRONTS 

large biscuit-box, with top and bottom knocked 
off, forming a good window on the west side. A 
roof was put on, strips of wood collected from the 
wreckage of a boat being used as rafters, with a 
cart tarpaulin stretched over them, and two inches 
of earth on top. The whole of the south side 
above the ground line was left open to give a 
splendid view across the position to Ari Burnu 
Point, and Imbros Island behind. The furniture 
consisted of shelves and cupboards of biscuit-boxes, 
a tarpaulin on the floor, a large-size bully-beef box 
as a table, a most luxurious camp-chair contributed 
by Hashmet Ali, and two stools cleverly made by 
the Corps carpenter from odds and ends. My 
valise on a layer of hay was the bed, and when 
rolled up was used as a fourth chair. The open 
side was fitted with curtains made of ration-bags, 
which could be let down to keep out the afternoon 
sun. It was a perfectly comfortable habitation, 
though a little cramped at times. The dimensions 
were not more than seven feet long and five feet 
wide, and about five feet deep, so that when a 
court-martial was in progress, involving the pre- 
sence of ten people, or we gave an extra large tea- 
party, it was apt to be overcrowded. Brown had 
an orderly, Kangan by name, whose fame as a cook 
soon spread. It was really wonderful what appetis- 
ing dishes he succeeded in serving up with only 
ordinary army rations to work upon. It was a 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 175 

long time before any bread or fresh meat rations 
were issued, but plain bully beef or Maconochie 
rations were good enough for Kangan : he used 
some of the spices issued amongst the Indian 
rations, and produced stews and curries of quite 
extraordinary excellence. 

A good road was soon made by the Engineers 
from Mule Gully to Walker's Ridge. All the 
traffic on this road passed the dug-out, so we had 
many callers who would drop in to tea after coming 
down for a bathe. All ranks from general officers 
to private soldiers came to call, and sometimes a 
General would be sitting in one corner of the dug- 
out and a private in the other. As likely as not, 
officer and man would be brothers, or the former 
an old employe of the latter. Lieutenant Eliot 
met a Major who used to work for him in New 
Zealand as a labourer. The discipline was not 
quite what the regular army has been brought 
up to expect, but it served the purpose and im- 
proved as time went on. I remember one private 
soldier calling at the dug-out on some business 
matter : he came in, sat down, removed his hat 
and mopped his brow, remarking, " Lord lumme, 
it's 'ot! " 

Stories of the Anzac men are legion : the follow- 
ing is typical. A Colonel returning one night to 
his trenches stumbled over a recumbent figure at 
the bottom of the trench. 



176 ON TWO FRONTS 

" Hullo! " he said. " Who are you? " 

A voice replied, " I'm the sentry." 

"Oh, are you?" said the Colonel. " I'm the 
CO." 

" Well, 'ang on 'alf a mo', and I'll give you a 

salute." 

But, despite some idiosyncrasies which seemed 
strange to us, the Anzacs were magnificent soldiers. 
Much has been written of their martial deeds : the 
praise that has been lavished upon them is fully 
deserved. The standard of education and intelli- 
gence in the ranks is so high that almost any man 
is fit to command a platoon, and their physique is 
wonderful : to watch them bathing was a treat, 
for the build and muscle of almost every one of 
them would have done credit to a professional 
strong man. They are delightful fellows to work 
with : in my job I came in contact with almost 
every regiment and every department, both officers 
and men. To serve with the Anzac Corps was a 
pleasure and an honour. 

The Anzacs called every Indian "Johnny " and 
treated him like a brother, with the consequence 
that the Indians liked them even more than they 
had liked the French. I often saw parties of 
Australians and New Zealanders sitting in the 
lines, eating chupatties and talking to the men; 
and Hashmet Ali used to tell me how good they 
were to the Indians, and how much the men appre- 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 177 

ciated it. Many complimentary remarks were 
made by the Anzacs about our mules, too. They 
were not accustomed to these little, hardy, sure- 
footed beasts, which seemed to impress them 
favourably, for they used to talk of breeding them 
for work on their stations after the war. 

For the first three weeks nothing but pack-work 
could be done. Every night long strings of pack- 
mules would wend their way up the hill-tracks to 
the trenches, making the short journey four or five 
times over and returning to the lines not much 
before daybreak. The main beach at night was a 
scene of great activity — always thronged with 
traffic — the beach officers busy every night landing 
the many requirements of the Army. The A.S.C. 
and Ordnance had to do most of their loading and 
taking over fresh stores during the hours of dark- 
ness, for the attentions of " Beachy Bill" and 
others of his ilk were so persistent in the daytime 
that work was constantly interrupted. 

Those of us whose duties took us to the beach 
established what was called " The Supper Club ", 
with headquarters in the office (made of ration- 
boxes and bags) of Major Worsley, O.C. New 
Zealand Divisional Train. Here, about midnight, 
cheese and biscuits and rum were forthcoming to 
those who were honorary members of the club. 
Colonel Lesslie and his two assistants, the two 
Naval Landing Officers, Commanders Dix and 



178 ON TWO FRONTS 

Cater, Major Worsley and some of his officers were 
usually there, and very cheery were the gatherings, 
which helped us greatly to get through the night's 
work. An opposition show was the dug-out of the 
officers of the Intelligence Branch, to which we 
were sometimes invited. They usually managed 
to produce a bottle of whisky, and their dug-out 
was the best in the whole position. A story is told 
of how one morning, when the red-tabbed intelli- 
gence officers, together with others of the General 
Staff, were poring over a map in this palace, an 
Australian private, wearing the recognised Anzac 
costume of shorts and boots only, put his head 
through the door and called out angrily — 

" So you're the who sneaked our kettle! " 

Fortunately, all the Staff possessed a sense of 
humour. 

About the middle of May it was decided to make 
an effort to use the A.T. carts on the right flank. 
Hard work by the Engineers had resulted in a 
rough road being completed through Shrapnel 
Valley as far as the bottom of the hill on which 
stood Courtney's Post, where Major Worsley had 
formed an advance supply and ordnance depot. If 
carts could be used, the stocking of this depot 
would be greatly facilitated, and after a careful 
survey of the road by day it was arranged to send 
three convoys of twenty carts each. I accompanied 
the first, and an adventurous time we had. It was 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 



79 



very dark; rifle-fire, always heavy at night, seemed 
worse than ever; carts kept tipping off the road, 
and every time there was a halt the bullets seemed 
to come closer and to be hitting the ground all 
round us. The road was commanded by enemy 
snipers, and it seemed as though they could hear 
the carts, and opened fire whenever the noise 
ceased. When we reached the depot there was not 
room to turn : every cart had to be backed out. 
On the way back there was further trouble when 
passing No. 2 convoy, of which Mr. Brown was 
in charge. No. 3 did not complete the journey till 
after daybreak, and was shelled by Beachy Bill as 
it marched back along the beach. However, that 
night's experience enabled us to arrange with the 
Engineers for the digging out of a yard at the 
depot where the carts could turn, and for the con- 
struction of suitable passing-places along the road, 
and carts were used thenceforward on that flank. 

The trenches on the left flank were held for the 
first few weeks by a Brigade of the Royal Naval 
Division, which was afterwards transferred to Cape 
Helles : many of them had been at Antwerp. The 
CO. of one sector was very jumpy, and three 
nights running there were messages from him, 
saying that a strong enemy attack was expected 
and that we must be prepared to move at a 
moment's notice. As there was nowhere to move 
to except the sea, this did not involve any par- 



i8o ON TWO FRONTS 

ticular preparations. If the Turks had succeeded 
in making a successful attack and breaking our 
front lines, we should simply have been driven 
into the sea,* for we had no second line of defence 
and no supports. However, so long as the Ven- 
geance on the left flank and the Triumph on the 
right were there with their guns and searchlights, 
we felt a strong sense of security. 

On May 14 General Birdwood was hit, and had 
a very narrow escape, the bullet parting his hair; 
and the following day General Bridges, command- 
ing the 1 st Australian Division, was mortally 
wounded in Shrapnel Valley — a serious loss for 
the Australians. He was succeeded by Brigadier- 
General Walker, late of the Border Regiment. 

We received a visit from Colonel Beville, who 
was arranging for the establishment of headquarters 
of the Mule Train at Cape Helles, where Rennison 
with No. 3 Corps was now disembarking. Four 
troops of No. 3, under Conductor Jones, were 
detailed to land at Anzac, including two troops of 
the 9th Mule Corps, commanded by Kot Duffadar 
Bahawal Din and Kot Duffadar Ghulam Rasul, 
and consisting entirely of men who had been in 
France with the Lahore Division. They were 
allotted to the New Zealand Division and located 
in Anzac, New Zealand and Reserve Gullies. The 
number of mules to be kept at Anzac for transport 
work was now fixed at 600 : more could not con- 



EARLY DAYS AT ANZAC 181 

veniently be watered, though a good well had been 
sunk just above the North Beach for the animals. 
All troops available for reinforcements were sent 
to Cape Helles. With the arrival there of the 
43rd and 52nd Divisions and General Cox's Indian 
Brigade, attacks were made on Achi Baba, the shells 
from the big guns bursting on the hill being plainly 
visible from Anzac; but none of these attacks met 
with any appreciable success. The enemy's de- 
fences, helped by the configuration of the ground, 
were too strong, and the show was hanging fire. 
Our prospects did not look too bright, for all 
natural advantages lay with the Turks; and all we 
could do was to sit tight, strengthening our posi- 
tions and waiting till strong reinforcements could 
be sent from home. 



CHAPTER XVI 

AN ATTACK, AN ARMISTICE AND SUBMARINES 

About the middle of May the Turks apparently- 
made up their minds that they would get a move 
on by flinging our force at Anzac into the sea; 
then, their communications being safe, they would 
proceed to drive off the force at Helles. The best 
plans, however, are apt to miscarry, and in this 
case they had reckoned without the Australians 
and New Ze^landers, who rejoiced exceedingly 
when they heard the attack was coming, and still 
more when it actually came. 

The attack began with a preliminary bombard- 
ment on the evening of the 1 8 th. For some reason 
known only to themselves, the enemy opened a 
cross-fire with guns from three different directions 
on Ari Burnu Point, at the same time sending 
over from the Straits — report said from the Goeben 
— some huge shells, all of which pitched well in 
the sea beyond the North Beach. The whole bom- 
bardment — at any rate at our end of the position — 
did but little damage, and was pretty to watch, the 
only disturbing element about it being the reap- 
pearance of our old German bete noire " Black 

182 



AN ATTACK 183 

Maria ". The first of these landed just over the 
26th Mountain Battery Camp, some fifty yards 
from Mule Gully. 

The infantry attack began that evening, was 
renewed at midnight, and continued, with occa- 
sional lulls, until eleven next morning. Every- 
where it was repulsed with heavy loss to the enemy. 
On the left, some of them succeeded in getting in 
between an outpost, which had been recently occu- 
pied by us, and the main position; but one of the 
destroyers got on to them in the open, and they 
could be seen running about like frightened rabbits, 
not knowing which way to bolt. I took up some 
ammunition during the morning, and had a look 
round from the observation-post on Walker's 
Ridge : nowhere had our line fallen back, and the 
piles of dead Turks testified to the success of the 
defence. The men in the trenches were in high 
spirits, for they had thought it a bit monotonous 
before the attack began, and Cape Helles was 
getting all the fighting. But this was even better 
than a recruit's musketry course; although it 
is difficult there to miss the bull's-eye, here it 
simply couldn't be missed. The Turks came on 
in masses with supreme courage, but never had a 
chance. One of the Australians, when asked by 
the General whether the men in his trench had 
given the enemy a rough time, replied tersely, 
" We gave 'em 'ell." 



1 84 ON TWO FRONTS 

The infantry were enthusiastic in their praise of 
the gunners, especially of the Indian Mountain 
Batteries, of which there were two at Anzac. Their 
officers are British, and the men Indians — mostly 
Sikhs. The guns are carried on mules, and are 
wonderfully mobile — just the thing for Anzac, 
where they proved as invaluable as in Indian 
frontier warfare. Sometimes they were taken right 
into the front trenches, and frequently succeeded 
in knocking out enemy machine-guns with their 
eight-pound shells. The Anzacs on the left flank 
had special confidence in Captain Whitting of the 
26th Mountain Battery, who finished off numerous 
troublesome machine-guns. 

The enemy casualties during this attack were 
estimated at 7000, whereas our killed and wounded 
only amounted to 450 — mostly due to the men 
climbing right out of their trenches so as to 
get a better field of fire. Enver Pasha was said 
to be present, and to have issued orders that 
our force was to be thrown into the sea at all 
costs. The result must have been a painful 
disappointment. 

The sequel to this attack was rather a humiliating 
one for the Turks, for they sent in a General Officer 
with a white flag to ask for an armistice to bury 
their dead, and, after he had paid two visits, 
arrangements were concluded. The armistice was 
fixed for May 24 : hostilities were to cease from 



AN ATTACK 185 

seven in the morning till four in the afternoon, and 
burying-parties were to be allowed to work in No 
Man's Land between the trenches, but neither side 
was to go more than half-way across. 

The silence that morning seemed uncanny after 
the incessant din to which we had grown accus- 
tomed. The armistice was, of course, a Heaven- 
sent opportunity to review the whole position, and 
everybody took advantage of it, feeling it to be 
unnatural to walk about in broad daylight without 
ever having to run or dodge. Somehow one did 
not feel quite happy, though one might have 
known that the Turk is too much of a sports- 
man to break an armistice. Had there been 
Germans against us, it would have been a different 
matter. 

I made a bee-line by the cliff for the famous 
Quinn's Post, which was then held by Tasmanians 
— a most important point, for it lay on the crest of 
the hill; had the enemy occupied it, the whole of 
Shrapnel Valley and the gullies leading out of it 
would have been at their mercy. Quinn's was not 
more than fifteen yards from the Turkish trenches 
opposite, and the continuous fighting which took 
place there was chiefly with bombs and mines. It 
was a wonderfully constructed post, with its 
tunnels and saps, and more than once the enemy 
set foot in it, but he never stayed there long, always 
being driven out by counter attacks. Major 



1 86 ON TWO FRONTS 

Quinn himself, who never left the Post, was killed 
there at last, having made a great reputation for 
himself as a fighting soldier. 

Between Quinn's and the trenches opposite, 
burying-parties were at work, order being kept 
by a huge Turkish gendarme in a long blue coat 
with a white crescent on his arm, and an R.A.M.C. 
man wearing the Red Cross. They stood side by 
side half-way across, responsible for the keeping 
of the compact. The Turkish trenches were lined 
with men almost shoulder to shoulder, some un- 
mistakable Germans amongst them — probably 
Staff Officers trying to gain a little information 
during the armistice. In front of Courtney's the 
dead were lying thick, and over to the right on 
an open space, where the guns had caught them, 
were hundreds of bodies, and the stench was ter- 
rible, many of the dead having lain there for days. 
Those in the trenches say they get used to this 
appalling smell, but any one unaccustomed to it 
experiences a feeling of nausea. 

One could not *see into the enemy's country 
beyond the trenches, for these lay on higher ground 
than ours, while they could see down our valleys; 
but this did not matter much, as they knew the 
ground before. I must admit that when I looked 
at those rows of scowling faces manning the 
trenches — every man with his rifle in his hand — 
and thought how much the enemy had to gain by 



AN ATTACK 187 

breaking the armistice, I did not feel too comfort- 
able. Had they done so, it seemed as though 
Enver's object would have been attained; for, 
though our men had been ordered to stand to arms 
during the armistice, many a front-line trench had 
scarcely a man to guard it; and the communication 
trenches were too narrow for two men to pass, so 
there would have been inevitable congestion in 
getting up reinforcements. But " Johnny Turk " 
behaved like the gentleman he always showed him- 
self to be in Gallipoli; so much so that the Anzacs 
rather liked him. How absurd it sounds! and 
what a ridiculously unreal atmosphere this war has 
created! After regarding Russia for years as our 
most dangerous enemy, she becomes our bosom 
friend, while Austrians and Turks, with whom 
we have formerly been friendly, we now spend our 
time in trying to kill. Bulgaria, wavering as to 
which side it will pay her best to join, makes her 
decision, and a " wise and far-seeing monarch " 
becomes " Foxy Ferdie ". Truly the world is 
upside down, and the Devil must be laughing in 
his sleeve. If only the Prussian vermin could 
have been exterminated without disturbing the 
rest of the world, what a blessing it would have 
been. 

The next excitement after the armistice was the 
appearance in the iEgean Sea of German sub- 
marines, which heralded their arrival by sinking 



1 88 ON TWO FRONTS 

H.M.S. Goliath. This was the signal for all 
transports to be withdrawn, only the Triumph 
and Vengeance, who put out their torpedo-nets, 
remaining with some destroyers to guard our 
flanks. One morning a submarine was reported 
off Anzac, and at once several destroyers began 
searching for her, steaming up and down and 
circling round and round at tremendous speed; but 
she managed to discharge a torpedo at the Triumph, 
which was standing about a mile out from shore 
opposite Gaba Tepe. In spite of her nets, the 
Triumph heeled over and turned turtle in twelve 
minutes, and in twenty minutes she had disap- 
peared. All the destroyers and picket-boats went 
to the rescue, and most of the officers and crew 
were saved, but about ioo lives were lost. The 
Triumph herself was a serious loss, for she had 
inspired us all with great confidence and had done 
fine service with her guns. After this disaster 
the Vengeance, too, had to leave, and our flanks 
were protected by the destroyers Chelmer, Rattle- 
snake and Pincher. The next day the submarine 
claimed another victim, the Majestic, sunk off 
Cape Helles within a few hundred yards of shore, 
where the water was so shallow that her ram 
remained visible for months. 

The extreme seriousness of this submarine 
activity will be understood if it is remembered that 
every single thing required by the forces in Galli- 



AN ATTACK 189 

poli had to be brought by sea. Anzac at any 
rate was already in a state of semi-siege, for the 
enemy were on three sides of us, and, if the line 
of communication by sea were cut, the force would 
starve, and the Cape Helles force would fare no 
better. The prospect made one think a bit; but 
confidence in the Navy — the natural inheritance of 
every Britisher, which had been enhanced by a 
month's campaigning in close touch with its officers 
and men — never wavered. Every one knows how 
that confidence was justified. Supply and ammuni- 
tion ships and transports bearing reinforcements 
arrived with unfailing regularity; we might never 
have known that submarines were about, had it 
not been for the removal of the supporting ships. 
Whether the particular submarine which did the 
damage was sunk by the destroyers we never 
knew. One could not help a sneaking feeling 
of regard for her crew, for to travel those 
thousands of miles from home, with the certain 
prospect of having to cope with the British Medi- 
terranean Squadron at the end, required no small 
amount of courage. It was a puzzle where the 
fuel came from; but we heard of at least one 
innocent-looking sailing-ship, posing as a Greek, 
which was waylaid and found to contain large 
quantities of oil. 

An incident — very amusing as related by Com- 
mander Dix — occurred in connection with the 



190 ON TWO FRONTS 

sinking of the Triumph, though it might well have 
proved a tragedy. When she was hit, a picket- 
boat happened to be towing two lighters containing 
A.T. carts away from Anzac. The picket-boat 
went to the rescue, casting the lighters adrift, and 
they went ashore close to Gaba Tepe about a mile 
from our lines. Dix volunteered to try and get 
them back, and set out one night in a picket-boat. 
He drew in alongside the first lighter, stepped 
aboard her to make fast a rope, and gave the order 
to steam ahead. The rope broke. Dix, somewhat 
surprised, fixed it again, with the same result. He 
examined the rope, to find that it had been cut 
clean through : evidently some sporting Turk, 
seeing the picket-boat coming, had got into the 
lighter, and, while another had presumably gone 
off to warn their friends, had cut the rope to give 
the others time to come up. Dix was not going 
to wait to meet them : he got back into the picket- 
boat and made off full steam ahead. Had he 
waited, the probability was that picket-boat and 
crew would have been scuppered. The Turks 
unloaded the lighters the next night, and, no doubt, 
made use of the A.T. carts. 

Dix used to amuse the Supper Club greatly with 
his yarns, especially when he got on to the subject 
of military tactics. It took three pretty severe 
wounds to make him relinquish his job as Naval 
Landing Officer, and the D.S.O. to which he was 



AN ATTACK 



191 



gazetted was a particularly well-earned reward, for 
he did great work on the beach. 

The Turks, having failed to get rid of the 
Anzacs by force of arms, now tried what honeyed 
words would do. They sent over by aeroplane 
some leaflets, the text of which ran as follows — 

" Proclamation to the Anglo-French 
Expeditionary Forces 

" Protected by a heavy fire of a powerful fleet, 
you had been able to land on the Gallipoli Penin- 
sula on and since April 25. Backed up by these 
same men-of-war, you could establish yourself at 
two points of the Peninsula. 

" All your endeavours to advance into the inner 
parts of the Peninsula have come to failure under 
your heavy losses, although your ships have done 
their utmost to assist you by a tremendous cannon- 
ade implying enormous waste of ammunition. 

" Your forces have to rely on sea- transport for 
reinforcements and supply of food, water and 
every kind of war materials. Already the sub- 
marines did sink several steamers carrying supplies 
for your destination. 

" Soon all supplies will be entirely cut off from 
your landed forces. 

" You are exposed to certain perdition by starva- 
tion and thirst. You could only escape useless 



192 ON TWO FRONTS 

sacrifice of life by surrendering. We are assured 
you have not taken up arms against us by hatred. 
Greedy England has made you fight under a 
contract. 

" You may confide in us for excellent treatment. 
Our country disposes of ample provisions; there 
are enough for you to feed you well and make you 
feel quite at your comfort. Don't further hesitate. 
Come and surrender. 

" On all other fronts of this war your own people 
and your Allies' situation is as hopeless as on this 
Peninsula. 

"All news spread amongst you concerning the 
German and Austrian armies are mere lies. 

" There stands neither one Englishman, nor one 
Frenchman, nor one Russian on German soil. On 
the contrary, the German troops are keeping a 
strong hold on the whole of Belgium and on 
conspicuous parts of France since many a month. 

" A considerable part of Russian Poland is also 
in the hands of the German, who advance there 
every day. 

" Early in May strong German and Austrian 
forces have broken through the Russian centre in 
Galicia. Pryzemysl has fallen back into their 
hands lately. 

" They are not in the least handicapped by Italy's 
joining your coalition, but are successfully engaged 
in driving the Russians out of Galicia. 



AN ATTACK 193 

"Those Russian troops whose co-operation one 
moment you look forward to are surrendering by 
hundreds and thousands. 

" Do as they do ! Your honour is safe ! Further 
fighting is mere stupid bloodshed." 

The aeroplane attempting to drop the leaflets 
made a bad shot and dropped them in the Turkish 
trenches, and the Turks seem to have thought that 
we had shot them over, for they flung them into 
our trenches, tied to bombs, with scurrilous remarks 
scribbled on the back of the leaflets. 

As may be imagined, they met with about as 
much success as Enver Pasha's great attack. 



CHAPTER XVII 



The title of this chapter will convey a false 
impression if it be taken to imply that the 
period to be described was dull. Life at Anzac 
was never dull, and "the daily round, the 
common task " furnished at all times a great deal 
more than the most exacting would have dreamt 
of asking. Amongst the things we could have 
done without were flies, sniping and shells. 

Flies in an Indian bazaar, or in Egypt, are sup- 
posed to be plentiful ; but there seemed to be 
more flies to the square inch at Anzac than are 
found to the square mile anywhere else, and in 
Mule Gully — owing to the mule-lines and the 
supply-depot — they were as bad as in the trenches. 
All one's food was black with them : it was 
practically impossible to avoid eating them. We 
tried mosquito-netting to keep them out of the 
dug-outs, and fly-papers and fly-flaps to slay 
them when they came in, but to no purpose. 
They were a veritable plague which rendered any 

attempt to sleep in the daytime quite futile : 

194 



'THE DAILY ROUND' 195 

this was particularly trying because there was of 
necessity so much night work. 

The sniping in June was pretty bad. " Snipers' 
Nest", commanding the North Beach and the 
ground above it, was a hotbed of them, and many 
of our men were hit between Ari Burnu Point 
and Mule Gully, even in the communication 
trench connecting them. The North Beach had 
to be placed out of bounds by day. Then there 
was a hill on which had been an outpost — known 
as No. 3 Post — that was unfortunately lost, and, 
in spite of many gallant attempts, not retaken 
until the Suvla landing, and from this post the 
Turks did a lot of sniping. The destroyers used 
to comb out " Old No. 3 " and " Snipers' Nest " 
from time to time, and this would mean a day 
or two of respite, but never for long. On the 
right flank an elaborate system of communication 
trenches and traverses had made Shrapnel Valley 
much safer than before ; but Brighton Beach was 
a bad place, and a point just south of it had the 
ominous name of " Casualty Corner ". 

It was particularly annoying to be sniped while 
bathing : one felt so utterly helpless without any 
clothes on. One's instinct is at any rate to turn 
up one's collar. The safest place to bathe on the 
left was just by the flank trench, where a couple 
of barges had run aground, and one could go 
through the trench to the beach and undress 



1.96 ON TWO FRONTS 

under a bank in safety. Often there would be 
nothing doing, but sometimes it was advisable 
to crawl behind the barges and lie down in the 
water. One day three men were having a swim 
when a sniper opened on them. They swam as 
hard as they could for the barge and reached its 
cover safely, but the sniper had not done with 
them, and fired a few shots at the barges just to 
show the bathers he was still there. At last the 
boldest of the three made a run for it, but as 
he came round the end of the barge the sniper 
fired, and again as he darted across the beach. This 
was discouraging for the others, but at last No. 2 
decided to have a try. His reception was the 
same as No. i's, and No. 3, thinking that the 
better part of valour was discretion, waited shiver- 
ing till dark. Another day four men passed my 
dug-out carrying towels. I called out to them 
that they had better not bathe as the sniping was 
bad. But they went on : three were killed and 
the fourth wounded. 

The 9th Mule Corps dhobi — one Lachman — 
acted as a sniping barometer. He washed clothes 
for all our men and for half the Anzacs as well, 
and at the water's edge beat them to rags on 
sharp stones after the manner of his kind. All 
day long he did this, singing as he worked. He 
took not the slightest notice of snipers, though 
he was wounded twice — fortunately not severely — 



'THE DAILY ROUND' 197 

and it was useless to forbid him to do his dhoby- 
ing, for he paid no heed. Whenever I went 
down to bathe, Lachman would give me his 
permission or withhold it according to the state 
of the sniping, and 1 found it wise to follow his 
advice. He was a plucky little fellow and a great 
favourite in the Corps. 

My orderly, Ajaib Shah, was disturbed during 
his bathe one day by several shots, and returned 
saying that Anzac was a very difficult place to 
remain alive in. Chaffingly, 1 suggested that 
cases had been known of men dying of fright, 
to which he replied — 

"Sahib, if a man could die of fright, I should 
have been dead long ago." 

Poor Ajaib Shah was one of the many bathers 
whom the snipers eventually claimed as a victim, 
for he was hit through the right elbow whilst in 
the water. He wept bitterly at having to go away. 
Just before he left he called me in as arbiter to settle 
a dispute between himself and his friend Karim 
Baksh. A lot of money was at stake, for an 
Indian is always ready to back his opinion to the 
extent of a month's pay. Was the French for 
" milk " " kit " or " du kit " ? My decision that 
both were right, and all bets were therefore of?, 
satisfied neither. 

Bathing was also permitted at the main beach, 
where a dive into deep water could be had from 



198 ON TWO FRONTS 

the end of the pier ; but the water there was not 
so clean as at our end, and, although there was 
no sniping, there was always the possibility of a 
few rounds of shrapnel from Beachy Bill. In 
the hot weather evenings the water was alive with 
men, and it was quite funny to watch the scurry 
for safety when Beachy Bill began. 

Bathing at Anzac was a cosmopolitan affair : 
talking to a man in the water one never knew 
whether he was an officer of high rank or a 
private soldier. This gave rise to some comic 
situations. A colonel, portly but dignified, was 
drying himself on the pier when an Australian 
private, similarly engaged, looked him up and 
down critically, remarking — 

"Say, mate, yer look just about ready for the 
knife. What 'ave yer been doin', gettin' into 
the biscuit-boxes — eh ? " 

With all its drawbacks, the sea-bathing was 
a perfect godsend : without it life would have 
been intolerable, for there was never enough 
fresh water to wash either oneself or one's 
clothes. 

Shelling at Anzac was nearly as common as 
rain in Ireland, happening almost every day — 
sometimes more, sometimes less. Occasionally 
the Turks would open a new box of "assorted 
shells ", and every gun would have a turn. 
Beachy Bill and Anafarta, or " Annie " for short, 



'THE DAILY ROUND' 199 

did the most damage until the *75's appeared. 
" Christians, awake " was an early bird which 
occasionally caught a worm or two. cc Lazy Bob " 
was large but tired, and usually "too proud to 
fight." There was not a great deal of heavy stuff, 
though three 8-inch shells of a very antiquated 
pattern fell in Mule Gully one afternoon. Lance- 
Naick Mehdi Khan staggered up to my dug-out, 
carrying one of them in his arms, observing, " Kaisa 
bara goli, sahib ! " (What a big shell, sir !) He 
did not realise that the thing was alive and might 
blow him to pieces any moment ! 

Every now and then, of course, there would 
be extensive damage, but on the whole it was 
remarkable how few casualties the shells caused, 
considering that the Turks knew every inch of 
our position and had all the ranges accurately 
tabulated. Although work was done as far as 
possible by night on the beaches, a certain 
amount had to be got through by day, and the 
Landing Staff, A.S.C. and Ordnance Corps all 
suffered heavily. Traverses of ration-boxes were 
put up at intervals of twenty or thirty paces all 
along the beach, and, directly shelling began, every 
man was supposed to take shelter behind a tra- 
verse. Colonel Lesslie and Commander Cater 
used to stand on the pier and wait till every one 
was under cover, and then stroll back to shelter 
themselves, unless a boat happened to be coming 



200 ON TWO FRONTS 

in. Then they would remain out in the open 
whatever happened. 

The dug-outs above the beach were often hit, 
and many a valuable life was lost in that way. 
Lieutenant Onslow, General Birdwood's A.D.C., 
a most promising officer and a charming fellow, 
was killed whilst asleep by one of the few shells 
which the Turks sent over at night. It was for- 
tunate they did not send more, for at night the 
beach was always crammed, and we could never 
understand why they did not turn on Beachy 
Bill since they must have known what was 
going on. 

The British Staff of the Mule Corps had now 
been greatly increased. Second-Lieutenant Cullen 
of the ioth Australian Infantry came as second in 
command, and several N.C.O.s were attached as 
interpreters. It was remarkable how many among 
the Anzacs knew a little Hindustani : some had 
been in India, and others had worked with Indians 
in the Fiji Islands. These interpreter billets were 
rather sought after, because they meant getting 
out of the trenches and living in greater comfort ; 
moreover, interpreters had the rank and pay of 
corporals. Many candidates appeared for a pre- 
liminary interview who could scarcely speak a 
word of the language, and seemed quite hurt 
when they were rejected. Most of the men who 
were taken on were first-rate fellows, but they 



< THE DAILY ROUND' 201 

were an ill-fated lot, for one was killed the day 
he joined ; four or five were wounded, and most 
of the remainder were invalided. There was one, 
Corporal Kirwan, who seemed to be a magnet for 
shells, and the superstitious drivers preferred to 
keep out of his way. 

Cullen knew no Hindustani at all and had 
little natural aptitude for languages, but he was 
tremendously painstaking and got on very well 
with the men ; and it was useful having another 
officer, though he was a novice at transport work. 
He was shy when he first joined the mess, being 
many years younger than the rest of us, but he 
soon found his feet and became very popular. 

The loss of both Indian officers was a severe 
blow to the Mule Corps. Ressaidar Hashmet 
Ali contracted pneumonia and had to go to a 
hospital-ship. He was very reluctant to give in 
and begged~the doctors to let him remain, but he 
was sent to Malta, whence he wrote that he was 
getting on well. Jemadar Wali Mahomed was 
wounded by a stray bullet while working in the 
sick-lines : he was back again in a month, very 
much pleased to have been hit, for it was his 
fourth campaign and he had not previously had 
the distinction of being wounded. 

When the weather got hot in June, we levelled 
a bit of ground outside the dug-out and spread a 
tarpaulin awning over it : here we used to have 



202 ON TWO FRONTS 

our meals, and a very pleasant place it was, for 
the flies were less numerous than in the dug-out, 
and we had more air and a lovely view. Eliot 
and Higginson had crowds of friends among the 
New Zealanders, who used to look us up whenever 
they came our way. General Russell, with his 
Staff Officers, Major Levin (who was killed on 
the last day of the evacuation of Anzac) and 
Captain King, were constant visitors : their head- 
quarters was just above us, on Walker's Ridge. 
Captain Hore of the 8th Australian Light Horse 
and his brother-in-law Trooper Lacy, whom I had 
known in Hobart, spent some of their spare time 
with us. Hore was a clever artist, and used to 
produce admirable sketches drawn in the trenches. 
Captain Acland, who had lost an arm tiger- 
shooting in India, but insisted on coming with 
the first contingent, was another of our friends, 
and Majors Worsley and Gibbs of the A.S.C. 
The two latter lived together in a dug-out on the 
main beach and often gave me lunch, for my work 
took me that way every morning. They ran a 
splendid mess with Captain Anderson, adjutant 
of the New Zealand Train, and Lieutenant Rogers, 
who won the V.C. in South Africa. We were 
sitting in their dug-out one day when Sir Ian 
Hamilton and his Staff came ashore. Beachy Bill 
was active at the time and one shell landed plumb 
on the pier just before their boat arrived. A 



<THE* DAILY ROUND' 203 

Staff Officer who met the party was evidently 
urging them to hurry ; but as they stepped on to 
the beach a shell pitched right in the middle of 
them. We held our breath. But the C.-in-C. 
and all his party emerged unhurt from the cloud 
of sand caused by the explosion and walked calmly 
on — truly a marvellous escape. 

I paid two week-end visits to Cape Helles to 
inspect the detachment of No. 1 Corps, and to 
confer with Colonel Beville. The four troops 
which had been left at Alexandria for the Indian 
Brigade had joined up, so that the major portion 
of No. 1 Corps was there. A regular service of 
trawlers worked between Imbros (the camp of 
General Headquarters), Anzac and Cape Helles. 

The first visit was uneventful. Baddeley had 
been hit in the nose when taking up ammunition 
the night before, and Pulleyn was now command- 
ing the detachment. Rennison was there and 
Sergeant Levings and Ressaidar Amir Khan, and 
it was a great pleasure to see them all again. 
Sergeant Levings told me very seriously that he 
wished to make a suggestion — that " as the troops 
seemed unable to take Achi Baba, and the Mule 
Corps had 300 carts lying idle, these should be 
sent out and the bally hill brought in." I found 
Colonel Patterson, Gye and Rolo in a delightful 
camp about a mile inland, where they had a 
sumptuous dug-out and lived in comparative 



2o 4 ON TWO FRONTS 

comfort. The Colonel thought badly of the state 
of affairs, and predicted that Achi Baba would 
be impregnable. His Zionists had suffered many 
casualties, and every one spoke well of their 
work. 

A wonderful change had taken place since the 
first few days after the landing, the country now 
looking almost like Salisbury Plain, with thousands 
of tents and horse and mule-lines. Splendid roads 
had been made, along which motor transport and 
ambulances were in use, and there was plenty of 
room to ride and walk about. There was a large 
aerodrome between W and V Beaches. The 
latter had been made over to the French, who 
now had two Divisions ashore and were holding 
the right of the line. The Indian Brigade was 
on the left, and the British Divisions in the 
centre. Colonel Beville, Pulleyn and Rennison 
were living in tents, having a large " funk-hole " 
to which to retire when shelling became too 
heavy. At Cape Helles they had no sniping or 
rifle-fire and little shrapnel in the camps behind 
the trenches, but they made up for this by a 
liberal allowance of high-explosive shells — most 
upsetting to the nerves. A good many mules 
had been killed and wounded, but the casualties 
in men were proportionately much less than ours 
at Anzac. Baddeley had just been taken to the 
hospital-ship when I arrived, but I managed to 



<THE DAILY ROUND' 205 

see him later on when the ship called at Anzac 
before leaving for England ; he was then making 
a splendid recovery from what had been a very 
nasty wound, for his nose had been transplanted 
to a position somewhere under his ear. But it 
was back in its right place when I saw him, and, 
apart from a pronounced nasal twang and the 
loss of his sense of smell, he was little the 
worse. 

My second visit to Helles, a month later, was 
rich in interest. Sniped on my walk to Anzac 
Cove, shelled on the pier whilst waiting for a 
boat, shelled in the picket-boat when going ashore 
at W Beach, and all the way from the Beach to 
the camp, I arrived just in time for lunch. 
Scarcely had we sat down when we were told 
that a ship was sinking. It was a large French 
ammunition-ship, which, luckily having dis- 
charged her cargo, lay not far from the shore. 
A submarine had fired two torpedoes ; one 
missed a French battleship, but the other hit 
the store-ship. As the battleship made off, our 
old friend the Asiatic whizz-bang peppered her 
stern with shrapnel. In exactly four minutes 
the ammunition-ship had disappeared. Her bow 
rose from the water till she was perpendicular ; 
then she settled down by the stern. The few 
men who were on board were picked up by small 
boats, and only six lives were lost. 



206 ON TWO FRONTS 

Colonel Beville took me to an observation- 
post and explained the position. With glasses 
it was very clear, and one could see the lines 
of trenches distinctly : those held by the Naval 
Division were being strafed at the time, and the 
French *75's on the right of the Allies' line were 
making a vigorous reply. A general attack by 
the enemy began at dawn next morning, and 
during the whole day the beach camps were 
subjected to fierce bombardment from front and 
rear, <c Asiatic Annie " hurling huge shells across 
the Straits, which churned up the ground and 
raised great clouds of dust. W Beach was get- 
ting the worst of it, particularly the ammunition 
dumps and ordnance stores. A party of our 
drivers had been sent on fatigue duty under an 
Indian N.C.O. to work on W Beach, and 
Colonel Beville — seeing how heavy was the fire 
— told the Sergeant-Major to send a British 
N.C.O. to take charge. But there was no need : 
as usual Sergeant Levings had dashed off directly 
the " strafe " began, and was in the thick of it, 
looking after the men. Taubes flew over and 
dropped bombs upon the camps. One could 
hear the bombs coming with a sort of swishing 
sound, and it always seemed as though they were 
falling straight on to one's head. Even Colonel 
Beville went to ground when he heard that 
ominous " swish ", although as a rule he scorned 



'THE DAILY ROUND' 207 

to take any cover whatever. The Peninsular 
Press — the Daily Mail of the M.E.F. — an- 
nounced that some 1500 shells had been fired 
on the beaches that day — the heaviest bombard- 
ment since the original landing. But the casu- 
alties were astonishingly few. 

That evening a squadron of eleven aeroplanes 
set out from Tenedos to raid Chanak. They 
made a striking picture as they disappeared in the 
sky, coloured mauve and red by the setting sun. 
We counted them as they returned : all got safely 
back, having successfully accomplished their mis- 
sion. As the trawler was starting on her journey 
to Anzac, W Beach was catching it again. Two 
or three shells hit the ammunition stacks with 
terrific explosions, the bursts of flame being hastily 
extinguished by the workers on the beach. The 
Greek working-parties seemed to take no part in 
this : they made themselves scarce directly the 
first shell appeared, and remained in seclusion in 
the safest spots they could find. 

That week-end was the most eventful one I 
have ever spent. 

The hospital-ships, painted white with a big 
red cross, and with lines of little green lamps at 
night, always looked very attractive as seen from 
Anzac. One morning Eliot and I obtained 
permission to go on board the Sicilia, and the visit 
was a pleasant break in the life we led ashore. It 



208 ON TWO FRONTS 

happened that a heavy swell got up while we were 
on board, becoming later a regular squall, and it 
was impossible for any boat to come ashore, so we 
were constrained to stay the night. The medical 
officers on board were more than kind, and we 
had the great pleasure of dining in the saloon with 
Colonel Gimlette, the P.M.O., and some nurses. 
It was a treat to talk to a lady again, and to dine 
at a comfortable table amidst civilised surround- 
ings. Champagne seemed very good by contrast 
with rum and indifferent water. 

Some of my wounded drivers were in the ship, 
amongst them a Sikh, Chanda Singh, who had met 
with a terrible accident while acting as orderly to 
the Hindu doctor of the corps. A friend who 
shared his dug-out had entrusted to his care what 
they both thought was a small lamp. Chanda 
Singh put a match to it, with the result that his 
left hand was blown completely off and part of 
his jaw was blown away. The friend, when taking 
bombs up to the trenches, must have stolen one 
under the impression that it was a lamp. Chanda 
Singh was conscious when I saw him in the ship, 
and talked quite intelligently. It was pathetic to 
hear him murmur that he would die happy now 
that his sahib had come to him. It is not sur- 
prising that one grows attached to the Indian 
soldier, for his faithfulness to his own sahib is 
a thing to wonder at. The doctors gave no hope 



'THE DAILY ROUND' 209 

of saving him, but I heard that Chanda Singh 
arrived safely in Alexandria, though I have never 
been able to ascertain whether he ultimately 
recovered. 

The storm had played havoc with the piers at 
Anzac, and the tide had risen much higher than 
ever before and had invaded some of the offices 
on the beach. If one brief squall could do so 
much damage, the outlook, when really rough 
weather should set in, was a poor one. It was not 
all " beer and skittles " at Anzac in June and July, 
and yet — though there was much to put up with 
— there was much to enjoy ; looking back upon it 
all, the recollection of good times predominates 
over that of the bad. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 

The Dardanelles Expedition seemed to have 
come to a standstill, but the higher commands 
knew — what the men did not — that large re- 
inforcements were coming out, and that in due 
course the attempt to penetrate inland would be 
renewed. All the energies of the Staff were 
directed to preparations for the coming advance. 

One matter of vital importance was the water- 
supply. The watering of the troops and animals 
already ashore caused considerable anxiety, and to 
cater for thousands of reinforcements as well was 
a problem requiring much forethought. The 
water for the men was brought ashore in specially 
constructed lighters filled from a water-ship. The 
Turks knew these water-lighters well by sight, 
and made a dead set at them : several were sunk 
during the journey from the ship to the shore, 
and others when lying alongside the pier while 
the water was being pumped into tanks on the 
beach. More than once the supply ran short, and 
the daily water-ration had to be reduced to half a 
gallon a man — quite insufficient, considering the 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 211 

heat and hard work. A scheme was drawn up 
for a pipe system to distribute water all over the 
position, and an engine was erected under the cliff 
at Anzac Cove to pump it into a huge reservoir, 
whence pipes were laid to the various gullies. 
The enemy could see all this being done and did 
their best to interfere. They hit the engine and 
the reservoir, and frequently pierced the piping 
with shrapnel, so the date by which the scheme 
was to begin working had to be postponed over 
and over again. Pending its completion every 
drop of water had to be carried from the beach to 
the trenches by mule transport. On the right 
flank carts were employed ; on the left flank 
pack-mules, using the receptacles brought by the 
Zionists who had been sent away from Anzac 
some time before. As the weather became hotter 
some of the wells ran dry, thus increasing our 
difficulties, for we were dependent on these wells 
for the animals. The drivers and mules were 
working at very high pressure, the shortage of 
water making it impossible to have more mules 
ashore, and there was delay in replacing the heavy 
casualties amongst the drivers. 

Another serious problem was to find accommo- 
dation for the reinforcements ; the area of the 
Anzac position was limited, and few places were 
even comparatively safe. Terraces were carved 
out from the banks of the various gullies to form 



212 ON TWO FRONTS 

camping-grounds for the new troops, and fatigue 
work became so heavy that the men really pre- 
ferred being in the front trenches. By now the 
health of the troops was falling off", something 
like 150 men a day being evacuated sick, in addi- 
tion to the normal wastage of killed and wounded. 
The restricted space, the flies, and the necessarily 
insanitary conditions of life had brought dysentery 
and jaundice in their train. 

Towards the end of July, conferences were held 
to discuss plans for the advance, and the pro- 
gramme of work which lay before the mule trans- 
port — in addition to its ordinary duties — was given 
to me. It consisted of the transportation of twenty 
million rounds of small-arm ammunition and 
thousands of shells and bombs to various ad- 
vanced points where dumps were to be formed. 
Three thousand sealed tins containing water had 
to be taken out for the use of the troops during 
the advance. Innumerable sand-bags had to be 
carted to the trenches, and substantial advance 
dumps of rations were required. The time limit 
was August 3, by which date all this had to be 
done. No more mules were to arrive until just 
before the advance began. 

Colonel Striedinger, A.D.T., came ashore from 
G.H.Q. one day, and I was detailed to show him 
round the position, so that he could form an idea 
of the transport arrangements which would be 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 213 

required. We started on the right and worked 
our way round the front trenches, visiting several 
observation-posts on the way, till we got down to 
the supply-depot in Monash Gully, where we 
called on Captain Acland and discussed supply 
arrangements. 

In one of the saps, only a few yards from 
the enemy's trenches on Walker's Ridge, was 
an exceedingly dirty-looking soldier — a bomb- 
thrower, whose orders were to throw back two 
for every Turkish bomb that came over. I asked, 
him whether he ever got the chance of going 
down to the beach for a bathe. His reply was 
distinctly comic, considering his position and the 
nature of his duties. 

" No fear ; we reckon it too 

dangerous." 

From the observation-post on Walker's Ridge, 
we could see the whole of the country across 
which it was intended to advance. Colonel 
Striedinger's comment, when we got back, was 
that it had been the most interesting walk he 
had ever taken in his life. 

What was known as No. 2 Outpost, which had 
been a quiet and popular part of the position, was 
now becoming an important centre. It lay about 
a mile north of Mule Gully and was reached by 
a communication trench, from which an offshoot 
led to No. 1 Outpost, held by the Maori con- 



2i 4 ON TWO FRONTS 

tingent. At No. 2 were the Otago Mounted 
Rifles, whose Colonel, Bauchop, 1 was a friend of 
Eliot's. We used to walk out there and have 
tea with Colonel Bauchop in a sort of summer- 
house he had had fixed up. It was quite a change 
from the main position ; the flies were fewer, 
and the atmosphere more peaceful. This outpost 
boasted the best well at Anzac, with a capacity of 
about 6000 gallons, and cool and delicious water. 
When first discovered it was something of a 
death-trap, many being shot on the way there 
and back ; but a trench was dug and cover put 
up, rendering the well and its vicinity quite safe. 
Large supplies of ammunition and rations had to 
be taken to this outpost, which was to be the 
headquarters of the Staff of the force detailed to 
advance ; but conveying these supplies by pack- 
mules would have taken so long that we deter- 
mined to try the carts. Starting from Anzac 
Cove, there was first nearly a mile of sandy beach 
for them to traverse, and then a mile of open 
country. We consolidated the beach to some 
extent by watering it, and the sappers at night 
began to build a sunken road, for the whole of 
the mile of open space was in full view of Snipers' 
Nest and Old No. 3. However, long before this 
road was finished, the carts were worked by night, 

1 Colonel Bauchop, C.M.G., was killed on the 7th August 
at the head of his regiment. 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 215 

and gradually the traffic itself formed a track 
good enough to serve the purpose. The short- 
ness of the hours of darkness, especially when 
there was a moon, was a great trial. There were 
strict orders that on no account were the convoys 
to be seen going out to No. 2, as the Staff did 
not wish the enemy to realise that it was from 
the left flank that we intended to advance. But 
one night one of the destroyers inadvertently 
gave the show away. A convoy was well on its 
way when the destroyer turned her searchlight 
right on to it for several minutes, with the result 
that machine-gun fire opened on the convoy and 
caused severe casualties. Once before, in the 
earlier days, the same thing happened when we 
went outside the line to fetch some shingle. A 
message had been sent to warn the destroyer that 
convoys would be out, but there had been some 
mistake about its delivery. A man who was killed 
that night was Bajinder Singh — a Sikh who had 
replaced Chanda Singh as orderly to the Hindu 
doctor. We were so short of men that all 
orderlies had to go on duty with the mules also. 
It was rather odd that these two — the only Sikhs 
in the corps, and both acting in a peaceful capacity 
— should have come to grief. There was some 
difficulty in getting another man to be doctor's 
orderly ; the men regarded it as an ill-fated 
billet. 



216 ON TWO FRONTS 

The evening after the machine-gun had been 
turned on to the convoy — while we were sitting 
at dinner on the terrace — a Turkish gun fired 
three rounds of shrapnel. The first burst on the 
beach, beyond the track made by the mule-carts 
on their way to No. 2 Post ; the second pitched 
a little short of the track, and the third right on 
it. This seemed distinctly ominous. Brother 
Turk seemed to be "bracketing" on the track 
with a view to strafing it later in the evening. It 
was with some trepidation that the first convoy set 
out that night ; but nothing happened at all. 

The unloading of the convoys and stacking of 
the stores required fatigue parties, and it was 
very noticeable how worn-out the men were ; 
almost everybody was the worse for wear, and 
many had dysentery. One could only get the 
work done by pointing out that the nature of it 
showed clearly that there was to be a move for- 
ward : this would cheer the men up, and they 
would make an effort. When it became known 
for certain that reinforcements were coming and 
a move was to be made, the number of evacua- 
tions went down at once. No matter how worn- 
out a man was, he did not mean to miss the 
advance. They were a stout-hearted lot, those 
Anzacs. 

The best fatigue parties of all were the Maoris, 
perhaps because they had not been quite so long 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 217 

ashore ; but, whatever the cause, the way they 
worked was an eye-opener. One job they were 
put on to was the widening of the trench to the 
outpost, which meant pretty stiff digging, but 
they had it done in a few days. They were 
very popular — most of them speaking excellent 
English — and they have pleasant manners, with 
none of the servility of the Indian about them. 
The native of New Zealand treats the colonist 
as an equal. The doctor and the padre used to 
come and dine with us sometimes. They were 
highly educated and polished gentlemen. 

The shelling about this time was worse than 
ever — especially on the main beach. Worsley and 
Gibbs' dug-out, just above the new engine, kept 
on being hit. Gibbs, returning from a bathe one 
evening, encountered Beachy Bill and was hit in 
the foot pretty badly. The same shell got his 
servant, Private Revel, through the chest, and 
made a hole through the sailor's hat which 
Worsley ? s servant was wearing. That was a bad 
day for the New Zealand A.S.C., for only a few 
minutes later their adjutant, Captain Anderson, 
was hit in the head and died in the hospital-ship 
the same evening. That line of dug-outs was 
then evacuated. A day or two later, the New 
Zealand A.S.C. lost two more officers — Lieutenant 
Sherring killed in his office on the beach, and 
Lieutenant Rogers, the V.C., wounded in the 



2i 8 ON TWO FRONTS 

head and shoulder by shrapnel. These two were 
Australians, and belonged to the 4th Australian 
Brigade, which was part of the New Zealand 
Division. 

During the preparations for the advance, there 
was never a day when the Mule Corps escaped 
casualties. We lost some of our best men, in- 
cluding a splendid kot duffadar of the 2nd Mule 
Corps, who was hit in the calf and had to have 
his leg amputated. Owing to the late arrival 
of the sealed water-tins, some had to be carried 
up by daylight, and Mr. Brown who was in 
charge had one disastrous day, losing seventeen 
of the fatigue party and several drivers ; but he 
carried on bravely and got the job done. Some 
accidents occurred with bombs, too, resulting in 
severe casualties. As may be imagined, bombs 
are not a suitable load for a pack-mule ; if he is 
in the least troublesome when being loaded, they 
are apt to fall off and explode. One night two 
drivers were killed and an interpreter and five 
men wounded in this way. 

To add to the excitement, we read almost every 
evening in the " Information " which was published 
with Army Corps Orders that the Turks were 
concentrating a large army — said to be 200,000 
men — to drive us out, and that an attack with 
gas and liquid fire might be expected any day. 
Twice " Information " told us that the attack 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 219 

would probably occur " to-night ". Gas-helmets 
and respirators were served out, and had to be 
carried day and night, and lectures given on 
their use ; but it was so hot that one would 
almost rather have been gassed than wear them. 
Had a gas attack taken place, the poisonous 
fumes would have floated down and settled in 
the gullies ; so paths had to be cut from the 
lines of every troop by which the mules could be 
taken on to higher ground, where they would, 
of course, have been shot. Very few animals 
would probably have been saved if the rumoured 
attack had come off, but fortunately it never 
did. 

The first of the new troops to arrive was an 
Artillery Brigade of 5-inch howitzers, and very 
welcome they were. One of the batteries took 
up its quarters in Mule Gully, and came into 
action close by. Major Higgon, the CO., who 
had been through all the earlier fighting in France 
and had won the Legion of Honour, joined our 
mess for a few days, and surprised us by saying, 
after he had studied the Anzac position care- 
fully— 

" From an artilleryman's point of view, this is 
an absolutely ideal position ; there is only one 
little thing I would like changed." 

We thought he was easily pleased. Then he 
added — 



22o ON TWO FRONTS 

" If only we could just change over with the 
Turks, one could wish nothing better." 

Higgon was killed in September and was a 
great loss to the force, for he was a fine gunner 
and the best of good fellows. 

As the date of the big attack drew near, there 
was renewed life in the men of Anzac. It had 
been rather disheartening to remain so long on 
the defensive, and the chance of hitting back was 
eagerly awaited. Fresh regiments of Australian 
Light Horse, acting as infantry, and the whole 
of the 13th Division and 29th Brigade of the 
10th Division arrived, and Cox's Indian Brigade 
which had already played a conspicuous part in 
all the fighting at Cape Helles. 

The scheme of attack was issued confidentially 
to me to enable me to make the transport arrange- 
ments. Act I. was an attack on the trenches at 
Lone Pine on the right, to prevent the enemy send- 
ing troops to resist the main attack on the left. 
Act II. consisted of an attack from the Walker's 
Ridge trenches on a hill called " Baby 700 " — 
one of the lower slopes of Chunak Bair — and other 
local attacks. Act III. was a night-march of a 
movable column consisting of the New Zealand 
Division,. the 13th Division and the Indian Brigade 
— moving out past No. 2 and wheeling to the 
right to attack the Sari Bair range of hills — co- 
operating with a force of four divisions which was 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 221 

to land at Suvla Bay. An attack from No. 2 
Outpost by the New Zealand Mounted Rifles 
would assist the movable column by coming up 
on their right after retaking Old No. 3. 

The Indian Brigade — consisting of the 5th, 6th 
and 10th Gurkhas and the 14th Sikhs — landed at 
night and camped in Reserve Gully, their Supply 
Officer, Captain Rebsch, establishing his depot in 
Mule Gully. He joined our mess, which now 
underwent some changes : Eliot and Higginson 
moved out, as their duties took them elsewhere ; 
Brown joined other Warrant and N.C.O.s ; and 
our party now consisted of Cullen, Rebsch, Bird, 
who had just arrived, and myself. 

My orders were to allot a certain number of 
pack-mules to the New Zealand Division, the 13th 
Division and the Indian Brigade — the balance 
to remain as Base Transport. The Australian 
Division on the right flank, who were not to 
move, were to have all their transport withdrawn 
and to carry on as best they could until more 
mules came ashore. Colonel Marsh managed to 
get fifty donkeys from Imbros to tide over this 
period. Conductor Jones, who had been with the 
N.Z. Division all the time and had done the work 
of half a dozen men for nearly three months, re- 
mained in charge of their new allotment, with 
Kot Duffadar Bahawal Din as acting adjutant. 
Second-Lieutenant Cullen was placed in charge of 



222 ON TWO FRONTS 

the mules with the 13th Division, and Captain 
Rebsch looked after those with the Indian Brigade, 
in addition to his supply duties. Bird was O.C. 
Base Transport, and had to supervise the landing 
of the additional mules. 

I sent Cullen out to reconnoitre for new lines 
somewhere near No. 2 Outpost. He was success- 
ful in finding a suitable spot in a gully between 
Nos. 1 and 2, and we set about making a cutting 
from the communication trench to the new lines, 
enabling the mules to get in and out unobserved. 
To save waste of time in drawing rations, a supply 
of hay for several days was laid in and stacked 
in each of the gullies containing mules. Every 
animal was provided with a small bag tied to its 
saddle containing three days' grain. Each man 
was served out with three days' emergency rations. 

By the appointed date everything as far as 
possible was ready, the only serious hitch being 
the non-arrival of the full number of sealed water- 
tins. The drivers were done to a turn. How 
they managed to carry on as they did without 
more of them breaking down was nothing short 
of wonderful : for the fortnight preceding the 
landing they got practically no rest. General 
Birdwood made a minute inspection of all the 
transport, and greatly cheered and encouraged the 
men by saying that he did not know what he 
would have done without them. The feeling we 



PREPARATIONS FOR AN ADVANCE 223 

all had after his inspection was that mule-transport 
was the most important thing in the whole of 
Anzac ! Probably every branch of the Service 
received the same impression, and therein — if one 
may be allowed to say so — lies the secret of 
General Birdwood's enormous popularity and 
success. 

One morning, early in August, Ressaidar Hash- 
met Ali walked into my dug-out. I was never 
more pleased to see any one. At Malta he had 
been offered the choice of a trip to England or a 
return to India ; but he had insisted that his 
sahib had need of him at Anzac, and begged to 
be allowed to return. They sent him back to 
Egypt, where he was again recommended for 
invaliding to India, but fortunately at Ismailia 
Captain Mayo, a former commandant of the 1st 
Mule Corps, managed to arrange that Hashmet Ali 
should come back to Anzac. He came just when 
he was most wanted, when heavy casualties and 
overwork were beginning to tell on the men's 
spirits, and by his tact and encouragement he did 
much to revive them. It was gratifying that only 
a few days after Hashmet Ali's return news was 
received that he, Lance-Naick Bahadur Shah and 
Driver Bir Singh had been awarded the Indian 
Order of Merit, and a hospital assistant named 
Ganpat Rao the Indian Distinguished Conduct 
Medal — all for their conduct on May 6. This 



224 ON TWO FRONTS 

was a great day for the Mule Corps. The 
Order of Merit is a very high honour indeed, and 
one that is rarely bestowed on a mule-driver. 
Colonel Beville sent a congratulatory wire from 
headquarters and there was great rejoicing. 

On the very day before the great attack began, 
Anzac suffered another severe loss. Commander 
Cater, who had become senior Naval Landing 
Officer after the departure of Dix, was killed at 
the post of duty at the end of his pier. Every 
day and every night since April 25, Cater had 
risked his life with the utmost unconcern, and 
it was hard indeed that, just when it seemed that 
the greatest danger was over, he should have been 
killed. A picket-boat was in difficulties, and in 
spite of the fact that heavy shelling was going on 
Cater rushed to. the pier to shout orders through 
his megaphone. There were many gallant men in 
Anzac, but probably no-one more so than Cater 
— no-one who had more whole-heartedly devoted 
himself to his duties. He was one of the best- 
known figures on the beach, and was mourned by 
every man who had come in contact with him. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE SUVLA LANDING 

There was intermittent shelling by our guns 
throughout the three days prior to the attack, and 
the enemy replied by directing heavy artillery fire 
on the gullies in which the fresh troops lay con- 
cealed. Thus the 13th Division and 29th Brigade 
experienced the unpleasant sensation of. sitting still 
and being shelled almost directly they came ashore. 

On the afternoon of the 6th the first of the 
local attacks was launched, the 1st Australian 
Brigade capturing the Lone Pine Trenches by 
one of the most magnificent assaults that has ever 
taken place. No less magnificent was the de- 
fence of this position against determined counter- 
attacks, which were made by the Turks daily and 
nightly for at least a week. The other local 
attacks, though equally boldly delivered, met 
with less success, and the charge of the 3rd Light 
Horse Brigade from Russell's Top was doomed 
before it began. At 4 a.m. the bombardment by 
our guns began, and when it ceased at 4.25 
the Turks opened machine-gun and rifle-fire so 
vigorously that it was clear that their trenches 
q 225 



226 ON TWO FRONTS 

were intact and they were ready. Into a hail of 
lead the 8th Light Horse rushed out, charging 
in four waves, followed by the ioth. Only 
two officers were untouched and very few of 
the rank and file, but each line dashed over the 
parapet undismayed, though the men could see 
those in front of them swept relentlessly down. 

Russell's Top is just above Mule Gully, and 
this charge took place not more than 600 yards 
from our mess dug-out, near which was a hospital. 
Soon the tents were full, and hundreds of men, 
many with ghastly wounds, were laid on the 
ground outside, where they had to remain in the 
broiling sun until a passage to hospital-ships could 
be arranged. Lieutenant Robinson of the 8th, 
with three fingers broken, called at the dug-out, 
and anxiously we asked for news of Hore, to learn 
that he was wounded. I sent Brown up the hill 
with a stretcher to bring him to the dug-out, and 
by eight o'clock we had him on the valise, hit in the 
shoulder and foot. Hore had got almost across 
to the enemy trenches before he was knocked over ; 
finding that practically no one else had got so 
far, there was nothing for it but to crawl back, 
which he had eventually succeeded in doing. He 
lay in the dug-out all day and got to a hospital- 
ship that night. 

We watched the landing at Suvla of the ioth 
and nth Divisions, and saw troops being rapidly 



THE SUVLA LANDING 227 

put ashore, supported by the fire of men-o'-war 
lying in Suvla Bay ; there did not appear to be 
much opposition at first, though shrapnel was 
bursting on the beaches. It was later in the day 
that the Turkish artillery, having taken up fresh 
positions and found the range, began to make 
things unpleasant for these troops. 

During the night the New Zealand Mounted 
Rifles had carried out their task of taking Table 
Top and Old No. 3, with a dash and brilliancy 
which has won them undying fame. And these 
were the very men who had worked for me as a 
fatigue party a night or two before and had been 
almost too tired to keep awake. It was a triumph 
of the spirit over the flesh. Men so weak and 
played out that they could scarcely stand, fought, 
when the time came, like troops in perfect physical 
condition. The deeds of the men of Anzac during 
the battle of Suvla Bay would have been a glory 
to any troops. No words can ever do justice to 
what they accomplished in the condition to which 
four months of semi-siege had reduced them. 

The movable column under General Godley 
had fought its way up the Sazli Beit Dere and the 
Chailak Dere on to the slopes of Chunak Bair, in 
spite of strong opposition, and some of the Indian 
Infantry Brigade and part of a battalion of South 
Lancashires had actually stood upon the crest and 
looked down upon the Dardanelles. But the ships 



228 ON TWO FRONTS 

had taken them for Turks and hurled shells upon 
them — a heartbreaking mistake which gave the 
enemy time to organise and launch a counter- 
attack and drive the Indians back. 

Then things began to go amiss. The expected 
support from the Suvla troops was not forthcoming, 
and a brigade of the 13th Division, which, kept in 
reserve the first day, had been ordered to advance, 
missed its way in the difficult country and was cut 
up, losing its Brigadier and all his Staff. The 
supply of water to the troops, as had been fore- 
seen, proved a task of extreme difficulty ; but, 
thanks to the careful preparation and arrangements 
made beforehand, the men of the movable column 
were watered, though they got much less than they 
really required. The losses in drivers and pack- 
mules were extremely heavy. They went out in 
small parties, so as to be the better able to make 
use of any cover, but it was a difficult and danger- 
ous job to take animals up these Deres while the 
battle raged. 

Many prisoners were captured, who stated that 
the Turks had never had any intention of using gas 
or liquid fire. I saw one German officer amongst 
them. The emplacements of one of the 7 5's with a 
lot of ammunition fell into our hands, but the gun 
had been removed. It was particularly appropriate 
that Captain Cleeve of the Australian A.S.C. should 
establish himself in the gunpit and pitch his 



THE SUVLA LANDING 229 

supply-depot close by, for his depot in Reserve 
Gully had been the favourite target of this gun. 
In the dug-outs of the gunners were all their pos- 
sessions, and in one, presumed to belong to the 
officer in charge, women's clothing was found. 
The removal of the gun had evidently been 
conducted in a hurry, for two Turkish officers 
were captured clad in pyjamas. 

All this time fresh men and mules were ar- 
riving at Anzac. At any odd hour a motor-launch 
(always known as a "beetle") might arrive and 
have to be unloaded. Convoys, provided with 
a guide who knew the ground, would go straight 
into action from the beach, and men were some- 
times hit and evacuated before they had ever 
been to headquarters at all. Often the " beetles " 
arrived at night, each carrying fifty mules and 
towing lighters containing more mules. 

One night a lighter drifted right away, and a 
party had to swim out to recover it and push it 
ashore. Almost every "beetle" which arrived 
by day was shelled, and Bird had a nasty time 
superintending the landings. The arrival of 
Captain Aylmer, Conductor Bruce and Sergeant 
Dudding brought welcome help. 

On the evening of the 7th, Cullen came into 
Mule Gully to report that work with the 13th 
Division was proceeding satisfactorily, and as it 
happened to be his 21st birthday we made him 



230 ON TWO FRONTS 

stay to dinner, and drank his health. The very- 
next day he received a mortal wound in the 
stomach from a sniper's bullet. He lay under 
cover of a little bank, to which stretcher-bearers 
had carried him till it was possible to move 
him, for during daylight to show one's head was 
to bring down a shower of bullets. Corporal 
Wilson, one of the interpreters, volunteered to 
fetch a doctor, and, running the gauntlet of the 
fire, returned with an officer of the R.A.M.C., 
who administered morphia. Cullen was heroic 
in his unselfishness and thought of himself not 
at all, his concern being entirely for others. 

At dusk he was carried to the pier at No. 2 
Outpost, where the wounded lay in hundreds 
waiting to be removed to the hospital-ships, and 
devoted medical officers and orderlies laboured 
day and night ; but, despite everything they could 
do, the wounded suffered terribly from exposure 
and neglect, for the casualties were so terrific that 
the medical services could not hope to cope with 
them. The wounded were not even safe where 
they lay ; quite a number were hit by stray rifle 
bullets : there was no cover to be had, and the 
Turkish " overs " just reached the beach. Wilson 
stayed with poor Cullen till they got him off* at 
midnight to the Dongola, where he died the next 
afternoon. 

Two Territorial Divisions, the 53rd and 54th, 



THE SUVLA LANDING 231 

had landed at Suvla to support the 9th Corps, 
but by now the troops which had fought the 
battle of the 6th to 9th of August were too 
worn-out to attack again without a rest. It 
became necessary to consolidate and hold fast 
what had been gained. 

Fresh transport arrangements had to be thought 
out. The scheme had been elastic so as to 
fit in with whatever circumstances might arise, 
and now it was resolved to divide the transport 
into four groups. " A " was to consist of first-line 
pack-mules, to remain at No. 2 Outpost and the 
Sazli Beit Dere under Captain Aylmer. "B " was 
Base Transport, with headquarters at Mule Gully, 
which now held 500 animals, under Captain Bird. 
" C " was Beach Transport at Anzac Cove, under 
Lieutenant Haddick, a new arrival ; and " D " was 
a detachment handed over to Colonel Marsh for 
the use of the Australian Division on the right. 
We had now close on 2000 mules ashore. <c A " 
Transport was shelled in its camps, and performed 
perilous journeys every day. It was the lot of 
K.D.s Bahawal Din and Ghulam Rasul to have 
their troops always as far forward as transport 
could go. Owing to the failure to take Baby 
700, the road from Mule Gully to No. 2 Post 
was still under fire, and the exigencies of the 
situation demanded that convoys should work 
between these two points regardless of losses. It 



232 ON TWO FRONTS 

was here that many casualties occurred to groups 
" B " and cc C ", for every convoy that passed along 
was fired on by machine-guns. One night when 
there was a full moon this journey was particu- 
larly bad, but the behaviour of the drivers was 
such as to command universal respect. They 
treated it as a joke. The carts were sent off one 
at a time, the driver, protected on the exposed 
side by the boxes and bags which formed his 
load, being ordered to cross the open space at 
full gallop. Usually they are forbidden to go 
out of a walk, and they quite enjoyed this un- 
accustomed license. But the return journey, 
when there were no boxes to protect the men, 
was a hazardous one. The drivers would arrive 
breathless at the foot of Mule Gully shouting, 
" Bachgia, sahib ! " (I've escaped, sir !), with a broad 
grin on their faces, except those (and they were 
many) who had not escaped. These moonlight 
marches must have been great fun for the Turks, 
for sniping is a good game for the snipery»though 
indifferent sport for the snipe. 

During the recent fighting the mule-transport 
at Anzac had lost 63 men and 296 mules killed 
and wounded, making the total casualties from 
April 25 to the middle of August — Killed : Second- 
Lieutenant Cullen, Conductor Galway, 1 British 
interpreter, and 20 drivers. Wounded : 3 British 
interpreters, 1 Indian officer, and 154 drivers. 



THE SUVLA LANDING . 233 

Animals killed : 259 mules and 2 horses. 
Wounded : 599 mules and 4 horses. Slightly- 
wounded cases remaining at duty are not included. 

On August 21, the 29th Division having been 
transferred from Helles to Suvla, and a Yeomanry 
Division brought from Egypt, a further attempt 
was made to advance from the Suvla position, the 
whole force being under the command of General 
de Lisle. Anzac co-operated by artillery support 
and local attacks. 

In spite of the wonderful gallantry displayed by 
the Yeomanry, who could be plainly seen from 
Anzac advancing across the Salt Lake (now dry), 
and of the 29th Division, whose never-failing 
heroism was a byword on the Peninsula, this 
attack, too, was unsuccessful. The task attempted 
proved more than human beings could perform. 



CHAPTER XX 

A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 

The failure to achieve the hoped-for results of 
the attack on August 21 put the final seal on 
the disaster of Suvla Bay. The whole essence 
of the plan had been surprise, and, once the 
Turks had time to prepare their defences, the 
natural advantages of their positions rendered 
further advance hopeless. The net result of the 
battle was an increase in the area of territory held 
by our forces. The Anzac position remained the 
same, except that the advance on the left had 
rendered the North Beach and the ground above 
it immune from sniping, and the position held 
by the movable column and the troops who had 
landed at Suvla was now in direct touch with 
that at Anzac. 

The chance of being pushed into the sea was 
certainly less, but a return to the former con- 
ditions of life seemed inevitable. Speculation 
was rife as to what would now be the plans of 
G.H.Q. There were many who thought that 
evacuation was the only course open to us, on 
the principle of cutting our losses ; for the daily 

234 



A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 235 

wastage continued and was bound to increase as 
bad weather set in, while the only compensating 
advantage was the retention of a Turkish Army 
on the Peninsula. On the other hand, many held 
the opinion that evacuation — or, in other words, 
an admission of the failure of the expedition — 
would have such disastrous effects politically as 
to be out of the question. It looked as though 
the latter theory obtained at G.H.Q., for signs 
of preparations to remain for the winter were in 
evidence. Hospitals were established in tents to 
hold large numbers of sick, in view of the proba- 
bility of bad weather making it impossible to 
evacuate them for days together. Material arrived 
for improving dug-outs and roofing them in, and 
large reserves of rations and ammunition were 
brought ashore. 

"The daily round, the common task" was 
resumed, to the old accompaniment of occasional 
shelling. Two piers were erected at the North 
Beach, and the open ground above it became a 
huge supply-depot. One very welcome change 
was that bathing from the North Beach could 
now be indulged in in perfect safety, and was 
greatly improved by having the piers to dive 
from. The early autumn weather was delightful, 
and the longer nights facilitated the transport 
work. Although there was naturally great dis- 
appointment at the result of the Suvla landing, 



2 3 6 ON TWO FRONTS 

one saw no signs of despondency or depression. 
The men remained alert and full of fight. 

1 paid a short visit to Suvla Bay, where Colonel 
Beville had now established his headquarters, and 
where he and his officers lived in tents close to 
the sea. Allotments of transport to Divisions 
had been made, with one S. & T. Corps officer in 
charge of each, while Base Transport, which did 
the beach work, was under Major Van der Gucht. 1 
There was a detachment at Lala Baba, three 
miles south of Suvla Bay, where Major Watson 
and Captain Porch lived in tents right on the 
beach, the mules being picketed on the cliff 
above. One day an 8-inch shrapnel shell burst 
in the middle of these lines with the most appal- 
ling effect. Sixty mules were killed, or had to 
be shot, and fifty-five more received wounds. It 
seemed almost inconceivable that one shell could 
do so much damage. Luckily the men were 
not in the lines at the time, and their dug-outs 
escaped untouched. 

Several 9th Mule Corps men whom I had 
not seen since leaving France were at Suvla — 
amongst them Naick Khan Ghul, D.S.M. — now 
a kot duffadar. Our old quartermaster, Sergeant 
Grainge, was also there, employed in the same 
capacity. Conditions of life at Suvla were much 

1 Major Van der Gucht died in Mesopotamia, where he was 
commanding the Indian Mule Train. 



A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 237 

the same as at Helles — plenty of room to ride 
about, and the country flat and open by contrast 
with Anzac. The beach camps were shelled as 
they had been at Helles. The Bay itself, across 
which a boom had been placed, was an admirable 
little harbour, where one or two cruisers were 
lying. Sometimes they had to move to avoid 
shells, but the boom rendered them safe from 
submarine attack. 

There was a large tent hospital on the beach 
between Suvla Bay and Lala Baba, and occasion- 
ally some shrapnel used to reach it. On one 
such occasion the Turks sent a letter of apology, 
but added that, if we would put a hospital directly 
behind a battery of guns, it could not be helped 
if it was occasionally hit by mistake. They 
certainly never shelled a hospital or hospital-ship 
intentionally. Another example of the Turks' 
decent behaviour is contained in a story told by 
a Major of a regiment which took part in one of 
the August attacks. The Colonel was missing, 
and the Major sent out parties to search for him 
without success. Then he sent a note under 
a white flag to the Turkish trenches, giving a 
description of the Colonel and saying that he 
would be very grateful for any information re- 
garding him. A day or two later a reply was 
received, stating that the body of the Colonel had 
been identified and respectfully buried, and all 



2 3 8 ON TWO FRONTS 

the contents of his pockets and his ring were 
returned by the Turks. 

About the middle of September I received 
orders to proceed to Alexandria to carry out 
certain duties with regard to the provision of 
winter clothing for our men. Bird was to take 
charge in my absence. 

Major Worsley was returning to Egypt to 
resume his former appointment in the Egyptian 
Army, so we went off together to the fleet- 
sweeper which plied nightly between Mudros 
and the Peninsula. Some of the 2nd Australian 
Infantry Brigade were on board, bound for 
Lemnos, where they were to have a spell of rest. 
One of them received a stray bullet through his 
knee-cap whilst lying on deck, although the ship 
was quite a mile from the shore. The sweeper 
had brought over the 4th Gurkhas, who had come 
from France to join Cox's Indian Brigade. I 
found Captain L. P. Collins, D.S.O., and Lieu- 
tenant Hartwell — the only two remaining who 
had gone with the regiment to France — in the 
best cabin on the ship, and promptly took it over 
from them. 

Mudros was still full of shipping including 
several men-o'-war. The Cunard liner Aquitania^ 
now a hospital-ship, dwarfed everything in the 
Bay ; another hospital-ship lying alongside her 
looked like a srndl tug. The Aquitania had 



A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 239 

come out as a troopship bearing troops to Suvla 
Bay. 

We reported ourselves on board the Head- 
quarters ship, a fine vessel of the Royal Mail Line, 
where General Koe and Colonel Striedinger very 
kindly gave us a sumptuous lunch which was a 
great treat. Luckily a ship was to leave for 
Alexandria that day, and passages in her were 
given to us. It was always a toss-up whether 
one might not have to wait days at Mudros, and 
just a matter of luck what sort of ship would be 
going. It might be a liner or it might be a 
tramp. Our luck was dead in, for the vessel 
due to depart that day was a new British India 
steamer, without exception the most comfort- 
able ship I have ever travelled in. My cabin 
companion was Lieutenant Carruthers, M.C., 
of the Dublin Fusiliers, bound on the same 
mission as myself. At the landing from the 
Clyde he had been wounded, but had soon re- 
turned and was, when he left, the only one of 
the original officers with the battalion. 

Worsley and I were joined at a table in a sort 
of bow-window — more like what one would ex- 
pect to rind in a seaside hotel than in a ship — by 
another Worsley, a Captain of the K.O.S.B., and 
by an officer in the Naval Division. The latter 
introduced himself by remarking, "Good-morning. 
I'm a war bride, I am." He was a most enter- 



2 4 o ON TWO FRONTS 

taining person, and the four of us thoroughly 
enjoyed the short trip to Alexandria. 

Major-General Wallace was commanding the 
troops in Alexandria. I had served on his Staff 
in India some years before, and he was good 
enough to invite me to accompany him, in place 
of his A.D.C. who was ill, to a French review at 
which he had to put in an appearance. Motoring 
out into the desert, we found the French troops 
drawn up on the tawny sand, making a most 
attractive picture in the brilliant sunlight, with 
undulating sand-hills and occasional clumps of 
palm-trees behind them. First there was a pre- 
sentation of medals won for gallantry in the war. 
The names, and the nature of the deeds for which 
the decorations had been awarded, were read out 
by a Staff Officer, and each soldier marched up to 
the flag-staff, where stood the French General 
who pinned on the medal and kissed the recipient 
on both cheeks. Then came a march-past, after 
which the cavalry trotted away behind the hill, to 
return at the charge at full gallop with swords 
drawn. When within only a few paces of the 
flag-staff, they drew rein, halted, and gave a 
general salute — an impressive and picturesque 
scene. 

In Cairo we stayed three days at Shepheard's 
Hotel, and spent the time seeing the sights. The 
many gardens full of beautiful flowers and shrubs 
were particularly attractive after the burnt-up, 



A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 241 

treeless surroundings of Anzac. Major Gibbs — 
minus a big toe, but otherwise fit and flourishing 
— took us in a car to the Barrage Park at one of 
the dams across the Nile, which was then in flood. 
The park looked as fresh and green as any to 
be seen at home. 

There was a big prisoners' camp to which 
we paid a visit. All the prisoners seemed 
thoroughly happy and contented, and they cer- 
tainly ought to have been for their treatment was 
remarkably good. Arriving at sunset, we found 
evening prayer in progress, and were reminded of 
the Jamma Masjid at Delhi. Hundreds of Turks 
were kneeling on their mats, with their heads 
bowed towards the sacred city of Mecca. 

The Pyramids and the Sphinx — especially the 
latter — impressed me so much that I made the 
journey to them three times, once at sunset and 
twice by moonlight. The Sphinx has a wonderful 
fascination. It seems to make a special appeal to 
one's feelings in these days of the world war. 
Looking at its inscrutable countenance, one ima- 
gines it is real and not the work of man at all. 
It seemed to be thinking, "What atoms you 
human beings are, and how absurdly taken up 
with your own infinitesimally small affairs ! You 
think they are important, but what are they — 
even the biggest of them — to me who have 
been here longer than any man can tell ? Even 
this war, which seems so momentous to you, is 

R 



242 * ON TWO FRONTS 

nothing. A thousand years hence all will be the 
same and I shall still be here." 

It is a pity that civilisation has drawn so near 
to the Sphinx. It ought to lie away in the desert, 
far from the haunts of man. To find a hotel 
and tram-lines within a few hundred yards is 
incongruous. 

From Cairo I went to Ismailia to transact my 
business with Colonel Shairp, Director of Supply 
and Transport in Egypt, and spent a couple of 
pleasant days with him and other old friends of 
my Corps. Rejoining the two Worsleys and 
Jones-Vaughan of the Rifle Brigade at Port Said, 
we indulged in surf-bathing and thoroughly en- 
joyed ourselves. 

At Alexandria I had to wait two or three days for 
a transport, and visited the Indian Hospital where 
I found many of my wounded men. Poor fellows, 
it was pitiful to see them — some of them disabled 
for life. Ajaib Shah was there, looking terribly 
thin and pale : two or three operations had been 
performed, but his elbow was shattered and he 
will never use his arm again. They were all going 
back to India, and were glad to go. 

The Manitou^ in which I eventually got a pas- 
sage, had been attacked by a Turkish gunboat in 
April ; she had also been hit two or three times 
at Suvla Bay — one shell going clean through the 
purser's cabin. Owing to terrible overcrowding, 
the journey back was not nearly so enjoyable as 



A TRIP TO EGYPT AND BACK 243 

the passage down had been. Brigadier-General 
Russell was on board, and Colonel Pope — after 
whom Pope's Hill was called. Submarines were 
known to be about, the Ramazan having just 
been sunk, and parades at boat-stations took 
place three times a day. Life-belts had to be 
carried wherever one went. Travelling round by 
the coast of Greece, the Manitou took two extra 
days to reach Mudros. As all the trawlers and 
lighters that were in the harbour of Lemnos 
were requisitioned for important transport service 
at this particular moment, it was some time before 
we could get away from the Manitou and on to 
a fleet-sweeper to take us back to Anzac. The 
ship in which the contingent eventually got away 
fell a victim to a submarine shortly afterwards. 

She anchored off Anzac at midnight. Things 
were just the same. The crack of rifle-bullets 
reached us from the shore, and the ping as they 
hit the water was an old familiar sound. 

At Mule Gully, I found my dug-out trans- 
formed into a house consisting of two rooms 
with doors and windows — almost unrecognisable. 
Bird had been invalided home, and Brown too, 
and Pulleyn was in command. Things had been 
fairly quiet, but the health was still bad, jaundice 
in particular being very prevalent, while a good 
many drivers had been sent away with scurvy. 

A regular row of houses was being built for 
Army Corps Headquarters, and there were many 



244 ON TWO FRONTS 

more tents than formerly. A light railway was in 
course of construction, the trucks to be pulled by 
mules. The working of this railway was handed 
over to me, as being a branch of the Transport, 
and it was very interesting working out schemes 
and time-tables. Eliot had been wounded in the 
foot, and Higginson had succumbed to dysentery. 
Few of those who had landed at the beginning 
remained. Colonel Lesslie, now C.R.E. Army 
Corps and temporary Brigadier-General, was still 
going strong ; but all the Landing Staff had 
changed. Little fighting was going on, each side 
being content to await the onslaught of the other. 

One day three gas-shells came over the top of 
Walker's Ridge like rockets at a firework display. 
The explosive was contained in a cylinder, attached 
to which was a long stick, and when the cylinder 
burst a cloud of yellow smoke escaped. But the 
shells must have been badly made, for beyond 
making a horrible smell they were perfectly 
harmless. 

One felt much safer walking about, though 
even now there was always a risk. A lance-naick, 
brought into office one morning to be given pro- 
motion, saluted and turned about. As he passed 
out of the dug-out a stray bullet hit him in the 
chest, inflicting a fatal wound. 



CHAPTER XXI 

CONCLUSION 

About three weeks after my return, I fell a 
victim to jaundice and had to leave. I left all my 
kit behind, expecting to be back in a fortnight. 

With about 1 50 other sick and wounded men, 
I boarded a "beetle" to go to the hospital-ship. 
The weather being rough and the " beetle's" engine 
not very powerful, she could make no headway, 
so a picket-boat took her in tow. In this way the 
hospital-ship was reached, but the " beetle " could 
not be made fast alongside. At last the attempt had 
to be abandoned and she drifted away, helpless 
in the heavy sea. Three times the picket-boat 
managed to throw a line and take her in tow, but 
each time the line snapped. Nearly every one 
was sea-sick, and some of the wounded were in 
a critical condition. It was five hours before we 
succeeded in making the shore after a narrow 
escape of collision with another vessel. Whilst 
at sea, a violent bombardment of our trenches on 
the right took place, so fierce that it might have 
been preliminary to an infantry attack. But after 
half an hour the shelling ceased, and we heard on 
reaching shore that little harm had been done. 

245 



246 ON TWO FRONTS 

It was three days later before another attempt 
could be made, but this time it was successful 
and the hospital-ship left for Malta that night. 
I little thought that I had seen the last of Anzac, 
but only six weeks later it was evacuated, as all 
the world knows. 

At Malta, after a short stay in the Convent of 
the Blue Sisters, now a big hospital, I was 
ordered home and a long period of sick leave 
followed, as it was found, on arrival in England, 
that my eyes had been seriously damaged. 

When the final list of honours for the Darda- 
nelles appeared, it was a great pleasure to see that 
Rennison had been awarded a brevet-majority, 
Sergeant Levings a D.C.M., and that others of 
the Mule Train had been recognised. 

Some of the Mule Corps men were on the 
Peninsula from the first day to the last, including 
Mangat Rai, whose achievement for a Babu was 
truly remarkable. The only words of complaint 
he has uttered since the war began were written 
from Mesopotamia. He described that country as 
" not very comfortable ". 

In conclusion, a few words may not be out of 
place regarding the status of the Indian mule- 
driver as it is, and as those of us who have his best 
interests at heart would wish to see it. 

In India — the most conservative country in the 
world — tradition dies hard, and it has unfortun- 



CONCLUSION 247 

ately become almost a tradition in the army of 
India to look down upon the drabi and to regard 
him as an inferior being for whom anything is 
good enough. With regard to the treatment of 
the driver whilst actually at the front during this 
war I have no complaint to make. Officers and 
men, of both the Indian and the Anzac Corps, 
were very generous towards my men, and the 
mutual relations between the driver and the fight- 
ing man were cordial in the extreme. It is of 
the status of the drivers in India after the war 
that I am thinking. 

The slightly contemptuous attitude that has 
hitherto prevailed is unreasonable, for, be it in 
peace or in war, the driver is deserving of more 
consideration. In peace, from the day he joins 
his unit he is the hardest worked man in the 
army, and there is but little time to teach him his 
drill or to instruct him in his duties. Whatever 
the weather conditions, his work on the road goes 
on; when he returns to the lines his mules must 
be groomed and his saddlery cleaned. There is 
no welcome " no parade" bugle for him. On 
manoeuvres he is the first man up in the morning 
and the last to reach camp at night, and he is the 
last to be considered where comfort is concerned. 

In war he shares to the full the hardships of 
the fighting troops and, as the casualties prove, 
the dangers too. 



248 ON TWO FRONTS 

It should be remembered that the drabi is 
recruited from exactly the same classes as the 
sepoy, the only difference being that men of 
slightly inferior physique are accepted. They do 
not look as smart and well turned out as sepoys, 
but this is due to an inadequate clothing allowance, 
and to lack of spare time for drill given the 
same opportunities, a Mule Corps would turn out 
as smartly as any regiment. 

Let the mule-driver's reward for his behaviour 
during the Great European War be a fuller 
recognition and more sympathetic treatment in 
the army. Let Government take the lead by 
abolishing once and for all that degrading word 
"follower", and by giving the transport-driver 
the same standing as the sepoy. 

The men of the Army Service Corps hold up 
their heads with the best; let the Indian transport 
man be allowed to do the same. It is his right; 
for a more hardworking, uncomplaining, gallant 
lot of soldiers than the mule-drivers whom I had 
the honour to command in France and Gallipoli 
are not to be found in the armies of the British 
Empire. 



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